Oass 

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MEMOIR 

OF THE 

REV. JOHN JENKINS, 

LATE 

A WESLEYAN xMISSIONARY 

In the Island of Jamaica ; 

INCLUDING 

€l)^i^(tm^iic Notices' of U^^t hxtiim ^laberp, 

Sfc, Sfc. 



BY 

GEORGE JACKSON. 



" The most beloved on earth 
Not long survives to-day ; 
So music past is obsolete. 
And yet twas sweet, twas passing gweet, 
But now 'tis gone away ; 
Thus does the shade 
In memory- fade, 
WTien in forsaken tomb the form beloved is laid 1 ' 

KiEKi White. 



LONDON: 

SOLD BY THE REV. J. MASOX, 14, CITY-ROAD, AND 
66, PATERNOSTER-ROW; 
BV L0MA3, BRISTOL; AND ALL OTHER BOOESELLERS. 

' 1632/ * ' 



Loudon; -! StepVeas, Friutpi, Rtd Lion Odui t/ Flet't Street. 



PREFACE. 



Ma-NY were led to expect a Memoir of Mr. Jenkins, 
about twelve months ago, from the pen of the Rev. 
Mr. Beal ; a gentleman whose name excited such ex- 
pectations as place his present biographer in very un- 
favourable circumstances. The question, " Why, at 
this late period, is it sent into the world by one whose 
name is scarcely known ?" appears to be so natural, 
and so reasonable, that it deserves a serious reply. 
This is found in the facts that, twelve months after 
the death of Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Beal was obliged to 
return the papers from which materials were to be 
collected, his other engagements rendering it impos- 
sible for him to redeem his pledge ; and, owing to a 
short acquaintance having existed between the present 
writer and Mr. Jenkins, his amiable widow pressed 
him to engage in the undertaking with an importunity 
which he found it impossible to resist. It was urged 
that about 600 subscribers had given in their names for 
copies of a Memoir of Mr. Jenkins ; and that, in general, 
this was from pure affection to him, and not from any 
regard to the known ability of his supposed biographer. 
These friends Mrs. Jenkins felt desirous to gratify ; 
and, as she was pleased to place some confidence in 
the person whose name appears on the title-page of 
this Memoir, though he had no prospect of paying 
either immediate or uninterrupted attention to it, and 
consequently must compose it under great disadvan- 
tages, yet, rather than Mrs. Jenkins and the friends of 
her deceased husband should be entirely disappointed, 
he very reluctantly consented to engage in the under- 
taking. He knows that his work will meet the eyes 
even of the subscribers under every disadvantage. 



PREFACE. 



Many of their minds are chilled by disappointment ; 
all have been subjected to unreasonable delay; and, of 
course, on him is imposed the onerous task of suing 
for indulgence, where he ought to have met with re- 
gard. Could he not plead their affection for their de- 
parted friend, and their wish that some one should be 
employed as his biographer, he should despair of suc- 
cess ; but, as he can sincerely urge these powerful 
pleas, he feels some degree of hope, though, owing 
to circumstances over which he has had no control, he 
is obliged to throw himself on their indulgence. 

The Memoir must stand or fall by its own merits ; 
and therefore he feels it to be useless to say much to 
gain it acceptance, or avert its condemnation. He has 
endeavoured, as much as possible, to make Mr. Jenkins 
his own historian, though he has also inserted such re- 
marks of his own as appeared to him to be required for 
the purpose of either comment or correction. Having 
himself been a Wesley an missionary in the West 
Indies, he felt a solemn anxiety to convey correct in- 
formation, especially at a time when misrepresentation 
and persecution put the friends of missions so fully on 
their defence. This he hopes will be regarded as a 
sufficient reason for what some may perhaps consider 
an occasional digression, and for the volume being 
larger than was at first intended. He has endeavoured 
to bear in mind that he was writing the life of a 
Missionary ; and, as every man is in some degree what 
circumstances make him, and can only be fully known 
by his powers of compliance, resistance, or control, as 
occasion may require, he has made such remarks on 
the state of West Indian society as Mr. Jenkins's 
papers seemed to demand, and his own observation 
had furnished ; and such as he hopes will increase 
the interest of the volume. He has frequently felt 
much gratification and profit while engaged in the 
work of compilation ; and he sincerely hopes and fer- 
vently prays that his " labour may not he in vain in 
the Lord, 

Hastings, August, 1832. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory remarks. — Pietv of Mr. Jenkins's ancestors. — 
His conversion. — Religious experience and consistent con- 
duct. — Employed as a local preacher. — Zealous and useful 
labours in England. — In Wales. — Examined and recom- 
mended to the Conference as a candidate for a foreign 
mission. — Correspondence with the Rev. A. Barber. — 
Letter from the Rev. W. Barber. 

CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Jenkins appointed to Ashburton. — Remarks on the pro- 
bation of Missionaries. — Labours in the Ashburton cir- 
cuit. — Opposed by a clergyman. — Illness. — Several times 
in great danger. — Letter to Rev. A. Barber. — Letter to 
Mr. Jenkins, Sen. — Acceptable and successful labours. — 
Letter from Rev. A. Barber : revival in his circuit. — Mr. 
Jenkins appointed a third year to Ashburton.^ — Is requested 
to hold himself in readiness to be examined as a mis- 
sionary. — Letter to his sister on the subject. — His appoint- 
ment to Jamaica. — Anecdote of a Cornish cynic. — Letter 
from Rev. J. Saunders. — Lines on the portrait of Mrs. 
H. Newell. 

CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Jenkins's ordination. — Marriage. — Sails for Jamaica. — 
Reflections on leaving home. — A storm. — Driven into the 
Cove of Cork. — Letter to Mr. Jenkins's parents. — Leaves 
Ireland. — Pilot-boat upset, and narrow escape of the crew. 
— Reflections on losing sight of Waterford light-house. — 
Unable to have divine service on board. — Character and 
kindness of the Captain. — Divine service on deck. — Flying- 
fish. — Dolphin. — Mr. Jenkins's birth-dav. — Passes the 
Leeward-Islands. — Jamaica in sight. — Lands at Morant- 
Bay. — Kindness of the Rev. Mr, Trew, the Rector. — Visit 
to a sugar-estate. — Visit to the burying- ground. — Tedious 
passage to Kingston. — Wesleyan chapels and congregations 
in Kingston. — Sickness of Mr. iVllen. — Mr. Jenkins sta- 
tioned at Grateful-Hill.— Death of Mr. Allen. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Page 

Mr. Jenkins's station at Grateful -Hill. — Letter of J. S. Lane, 
Esq. — Hostility to missions. — Smith and Shrewsbury. — 
Defence of the Wesleyan missionaries. — Letter of the 
Rev. Joseph Taylor. — Rev. R. Watson on Wesleyan 
missions. — Letter from. — Rev. Mr. Trew on Missions. — 
Remarks on the late rebellion in Jamaica. — Fidelity of 
religious slaves. — Mr. Box's imprisonment. — Jeopardy of 
the missionaries. — Letter from Mr. Jenkins on the condi- 
tion of the slaves. — Reasons for controverting its contents. 
— Food of slaves. — Clothing. — Sabbath. — Rev. Mr. Trew's 
remarks upon. — Labour of slaves. — Punishment. — Dr. Wil- 
liamson upon. — Rev. Mr. Trevi^ upon. — Female flogging : 
Awful case of. — Extract from the Jamaica Christian 
Record:" Cases of great ^raelty. — Abolition o£ slavery. 
— Jeremie's " Four Essays" on. — Mr. Beaumont's speech. 
— Substitution of missionary labours for the cart-whip. 66 



CHAPTER v. 

Slaves the direct objects of the Wesleyan missions in the 
West Indies. — Letters from Mr. Jenkins to the Rev, 
Messrs. W. and A. Barber. — Remarks on the resolutions 
of the. Wesleyan missionaries in Jamaica on the subject 
of slavery. — Dangers of insurrection averted by the Rev. 
R. Young, — Letter from the Rev. J. Shipman. — Mr. Jen- 
kins appointed to Morant-Bay. — Letter to his father. — 
Exhausting labours. — Rev. Mr. Kerr, arrival and station 
of. — Mr. Jenkins's attempts to establish a mission at Port 
Antonio. — Letter of a magistrate refusing licence. — Im- 
minent danger of Mr. Jenkins from the fall of his horse. — 
Sickliness of the country, and death of seamen. — Letter 
to the Rev. A. Barber. — Morals of the West Indians. — 
Letter from the Rev. Mr. Morley, — Opposition to mis- 
sionary meetings. — Letter from a clergyman. — Miscel- 
laneous interesting communications. 135 



CHAPTER VI. 

Loss of the Maria Mail-Boat. — Letter of condolence to Mr. 
Jenkins from the Rev. Mr. Trew.' — Remarks on the removal 
of missionaries. — Letter from the Rev. Mr, Crofts. — Letter 
Trom Stephen Drew, Esq. — Mr. Jenkins's removal to the 
Bahama Islands. — Shipwrecked on his arrival. — Appointed 
to Turk's-Island. — Illness and departure for New-York. — 
Sails for England. — Letter from the Rev. Mr. Morley. — 
Appointed to Pembroke, South Wales. — Letter from the 
Rev. Mr. James. — Letter from the Rev. Mr. Shipman. — 
Specimens of Mr. Jenkins's Poetry. — Appointment to the 
Scilly Islands.— Sickness, Death, and Epitaph. 181 



A MEMOIR, &c. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory remarks. — Piety of Mr. Jenkins's ances- 
tors.~His conversion. — Religious experience and 
consistent conduct. — Employed as a local preacher . 
— Zealous and useful labours in England — In 
Wales. — Examined and recommended to the con- 
ference as a candidate for a foreign mission. — Cor- 
respondence with the Rev. A. Barber. — Letter from 
the Rev. W. Barber. 

We obtain some of our most gratifying and in- 
structive thoughts by indulging our disposition for 
contrast ; but it is one of the most pleasing reflections 
of the writer of the following memoir that he has not 
to offer it to the world as unique in its kind. Though 
it is the memoir of a man who would once have been 
considered a Christian and a missionary of no ordinary 
stature, the standard of piety in the present day is 
such that the church of Christ contains many such 
Christians, and the zeal of that church employs many 
such missionaries. The times are happily passed 
when mere official piety, or even gross superstition, 
were the only requisites for the pulpit ; it is only a very 
small minority who are disposed to tolerate an impious 
ministry ; and " Thou that teachest another, teachest 
thou not thyself?" as it is the enquiry of inspiration, is 
now also the general question of mankind. It is, 
therefore, properly demanded of one who undertakes 
to be the biographer of a missionary that he shall be 
prepared to give an account of his conversion : for 
conversion, in the scriptural sense of that term, is the 
only proper ground of Christian piety. 

Conversion is the w^ork of the Holy Spirit on the 
heart of its subject : and, though its fruits are manifest 
unto all to whom the convert may be known, the 
process and the consummation of the change are 

B 



A MEMOIR OF 



known only to the almighty Agent, and the favoured 
recipient, of this spiritual transformation. This ren- 
ders it desirable that religious biography should be 
compiled partly from the records of the experience of 
the subject of the story ; and this desire the journal 
kept by our departed brother Jenkins will enable us 
to gratify. His religion was " that of the heart 
and of this religion he kept a record, which carries us 
back as far as the thirteenth year of his age. 

From this record it appears that Mr. Jenkins was 
born at Sw^ansea, in the county of Glamorgan, South 
Wales, in the year 1798/' of truly rehgious parents, 
who trained him up " in the iiurture and admonition of 
the Lord." St. Paul made the piety of Timothy's 

mother" and " grandmother" the occasion of his 
grateful observation ; perhaps because their example 
had been blessed, and their prayers answered, in the 
communication of that " unfeigned faith" to him 
which " first dwelt in them ;" and Mr. Jenkins's an- 
cestors w^ere like-minded with those of Timothy. 
Mrs. Jenkins remarks, " His grandmother, Elizabeth 
Jenkins, was among the first that embraced Methodism 
in Carmarthen, and was one of the first leaders, made 
such by Mr. Wesley on his second visit to that town. 
He often went to her house (as it was always open to 
the preachers), and Mr. J.'s father has frequently 
stood between his knees, Mr. Wesley caUing him 
namesake, and often praying the Lord to bless him, 
and make him and his posterity a seed to serve him." 
W^e know not the blessings which descended on " the 
house of Onesiphorus," in answer to the prayer of the 
apostle, because " he often refreshed him, and was not 
ashamed of his chain ;" nor do we know the blessings 
we may entail on our posterity, by inducing those 
whom we entertain to store the minds of our children 
with blessings and prayers, and to lay up in their 
behalf this kind of treasure. All whose minds are 
properly regulated would prefer that they should 
have an interest in these, rather than in the hereditary 
worldliness and wealth of a Demas," who, under 
the same trying circumstances, forsook the apostle, 
^' having loved this present world." " The effectual. 



THE REV. JOHN' JEXKIXS. ?j 

fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." 
Though a conviction that he " was not worse than other 
boys " for some time prevented ]Mr. J. from hearken- 
ing to good advice," so as to lead to his conversion, yet 
it kept a restraint upon" him, and prevented his " run- 
ning to the same excess of riot." But, from this time 
to the sixteenth year of his age, his hfe does not 
appear to have been equally blameless ; for though at 
a prayer-meeting in the vestry of Portland Chapel, 
Bristol (to which city he was brought by his parents 
early in life), he was convinced of his sins, and of the 
need of forgiveness, he became *' acquainted with 
some youths of a bad moral character :" he " was 
drawn away by them to seek death in the error of his 
ways;" and he expresses his " belief that, if God 
had not called him when he did, he should have become 
one of the most abandoned wretches on the face of tJie 
earth." His conversion, however, soon followed : and 
it is dated ]March 13th, 1814. About two months 
previous to this date, he was taken by his father to 
a Sabbath-school in the country, to a place called 
Clay-hill;" and in this school he " became a teacher." 
To the duties of a teacher in this school he " devoted 
himself for years," says ^Irs. Jenkins, " gohig with 
his sister every Sabbath three miles into the country, 
takinor their food alonof with them ; and in one of these 
journeys they narrowly escaped being lost in the 
snow." This pious employment brought him into the 
society of those who were differently disposed, who 
desired his salvation, and who invited him to one of 
their love-feasts on the day above mentioned. He 
went, " accompanied by several of his acquaintances : *' 
he was soon impressed with a sense of his danger ; 
and his companions beginning to cry for mercy in- 
creased his distress, and he soon " saw himself as it 
were on the brink of hell." Though he saw no hope 
of mercy, he cried mightily to God, until eleven 
o'clock arrived ; when, though he was perhaps uncon- 
scious of it at the time, and possibly ever afterwards, 
sleep seems to have come to his relief. This, I think, 
will appear from his own words, which are extracted 
from his account of this occurrence in his journal. 



4 



A MEMOIR OF 



" I continued crying to God, until my strength 
failed, and I was forced to lay my head down and 
continue silent. But my agony increased. O ! the 
agony ! the inexpressible agony of my soul ! " 

In noticing " the way in which he felt his soul de- 
livered of its burden," he speaks as follows : — 

" It was about 11 o'clock, after I had been on my 
knees about two hours, that the Lord visited me with 
his salvation. I leaned my head upon the form where 
I was kneeling, when m\ ears were saluted with the 
sound of harps ; for I thought they were in the room 
where I was. No sooner had I listened to this strange 
sound, than the door of che room opened, and a man 
with a robe as white as the light came directly to me, 
and stood over me ; and, with a smile on his counte- 
nance, said, ' Son, be of good cheer : thy sins, which 
are many, are all forgiven thee : arise, and go in 
peace.' This was glorious news for me ; it was this 
that gave me the victory over sin and death, that filled 
my soul with love that is past all human comprehen- 
sion : and I praise God that ever since I have found 
him as good as his promise ; for he has told me that 
he " will never leave me nor forsake me." 

I have not a doubt of this being a dream. A youth 
of sixteen, who had been on his knees for two hours, 
and who at eleven o'clock at night, and in a state of 
exhaustion, laid his head on the form before which he 
was kneeling, would scarcely be able to avoid sleeping, 
and sleeping he was graciously influenced to dream 
on what was the subject of his solicitude. This dream, 
however, in his case, answered the best of purposes. 
It directed his mind to an encouraging declaration of 
Holy Writ ; and the man who trusts in the Lord, as 
therein directed, whatever be the means of " bringing 
it to his remembrance," will feel that in him he has 
righteousness and strength." Such was the effect, 
whatever was the means, that he never afterwards 
doubted the sufiiciency of the merit of the Saviour's 
blood ; and the language in which he concludes the 
paragraph of which the above is an extract was ever 
afterwards the language of his heart : — " May the 
Lord grant that I may walk worthy of the vocation 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



5 



wherewith I am called, until I am taken up to dwell 
in his kingdom of glory !" This is the language of 
one who had " passed from death unto life," whatever 
the means or the process might have been ; and he 
attributed the change to its proper agent, in asking; 

Did Christ ever send a soul away without the desire 
of his heart, if he asked in faith ? No," he replies ; 

his heart is touched with the cries of the penitent ; he 
steps in to his relief ; and enables him to rejoice with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Such was the case 
with me. I thought it was impossible for God to 
pardon my sins, on account of the innumerable multi- 
tude I saw before my eyes. Yet, when faith was 
imparted, I was enabled to triumph over them all." 
Thus God pardoneth and absolveth all them that 
truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." 

Conversion is the point at which scriptural holiness 
commences ; and the apostolic exhortation to the new" 
convert is, " Go on unto perfection" (Heb. vi. 1) ; 
and Mr. Jenkins appears to have been early saved 
from the fatal delusion of many who lose sight of that 
maxim of the kingdom of God — " Whosoever hath 
([increase] to him shall be given, and he shall have more 
abundance : but from him that hath not [increase] 
shall be taken away, even that [talent which] he hath.' 
Matt. xiii. 12. A practical regard to this maxim, 
and to all the precepts which grow out of it, is the 
only safe-guard we possess against the doctrine of jus- 
tification by faith degenerating into antinomianism ; 
and the best proof of this is found in the fact that 
the antinomian is the most virulent opponent of Chris- 
tian " perfection," which now became the object of 
Mr. Jenkins's pursuit. October 9th he writes, 

" For some time past, I have felt much of the 
powers of the world to come. I have also felt moi^ 
and more of my own nothingness ; and I feel tlie 
want of an entire renewal of my perverse and deceitful 
heart. Sanctification is now what I want to feel : for 
how can I think of resting short of full salvation, 
when God has declared that without holiness no 
man can see his face ? Therefore I am determined 
that I will not rest short of all the fulness of his Spirit, 

B 2 



A MEMOIR OF 



O that 1 had faith ! O that I had that belief of the 
promises of God which would enable me to lay hold 
on the blessing. 

' I want thy will to do, 

As angels do in heaven ; 
In Christ a creature new, 

Most graciously forgiven : 
I want thy perfect will to prove, 
All sanctified by spotless love.' " 

From this time, to the 1st of February, 1815, he con- 
tinued in the diligent search of this blessing ; and on 
that day he writes, 

" This day my soul has been drawn out in prayer to 
God, in full expectation of receiving the blessing ; 
and, glory for ever be ascribed to the name of the 
Lord, he has heard my multiplied petitions, and has 
given me to taste his sanctifying grace. O what shall I 
render unto my God for all the rich bounties of his 
love, which he is constantly making known to me ! I 
have given him my heart, and I know he is able to 
keep me to the end. May God keep me humble and 
faithful unto death ! For some time past I have had 
many severe trials, and many great temptations ; but, 
blessed be God, I can look to him and find ' no con- 
demnation ; ' therefore I know that his ' Spirit bears 
witness with my spirit' that I am a child of God — 
that I have tasted and felt his sanctifying grace, which 
enables me to triumph over death, and that gives me a 
glorious prospect of a blessed eternity. O for more 
of the mind that was in Christ Jesus ! for more of his 
love that casteth out all fear, and that purifies the 
heart ! ' Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is 
within me bless his holy name ! bless the Lord, O my 
soul, and forget not all his benefits ! ' 

From the first of his Christian course, Mr. Jenkins 
appears to have been much attached to the Rev. 
Aquila Barber, then a youth like himself, and like 
him also fervently seeking the constituent graces, and 
the pure enjoyments, of the " inward kingdom of 
God." In several parts of his journal, which a 
regard to brevity has obliged me to omit, he speaks 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



7 



in the most affectionate terms of his attachment to this 
young friend, and of their frequent Christian intercourse 
with each other. Under the above date he says, 
*' One thing that rejoices my heart is, that my dear 
brother and friend has found the sanctifying influence 
of the Spirit of God. Now we are enabled to go on 
blessing and praising the God of our salvation ; and God 
grant that while we live we may live to God ! Joy- 
ful mention is also made of the salvation of other 
young people. Were the intercom'se of the rising 
generation always thus pure, and their efforts and 
anxieties always thus directed, spite of the depravity 
of nature, and the temptations of the devil, our earth 
would bear some analogy to the original paradise. O, 
how generally it happens that the confirmed iniquities 
of age are but the vices of youth in luxuriated matu- 
rity ! 

The last entry of this year will lead us to regard 
Mr. Jenkins in his convictions, his fears, his determi- 
nations, and his designs, as a Christian missionary. He 
writes, 

" I feel a deadness to the world through the cross of 
Christ ; but O how hard I feel it to glory in that 
cross ! I am determined, however, not to give way to 
the suggestions of Satan : for I know that Christ has 
called me to labour in his vineyard. ' Woe to me if 
I preach not the gospel.' I believe the Lord has 
put this in my heart, so that I can get no rest by day, 
and scarcely by night. The cry is, ' Come over to 
India and help us.' I am fully satisfied that, if the 
Lord please that I should go, he will open my way. 
I do bless my dear Redeemer for his many great and 
precious promises ; and I do feel daily an application 
of his precious blood to my soul. I know that God 
has the whole of my affections ; I know that he is my 
God, and that I am his child. I feel that I have 
redemption in the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness 
of my sins, and it is my desire and determination to be 
a Christian. God has, and shall have, all my heart." 

On the 1st of January, Mr. Jenkins entered into a 
solemn covenant with God in private ; but during the 
week he expresses himself as much distressed by 



8 



A MEMOIR OF 



temptation, though he " felt not the least desire to 
submit in any one thing to the tempter," and as " feel-* 
ing that his treasure and his heart were in heaven." 
On the following Sabbath he attended " the renewing 
of the covenant" in Bristol, and says, " My soul 
returned again to its centre, when renewing my cove-^ 
nant with my God. I felt my soul melted as wax before 
the fire, and afterwards, at . the sacrament, I was 
abundantly blessed." 

About this time, he seems to have been much per- 
plexed respecting matters which, owing to his mi- 
nority, he could not control ; and during this season 
of perplexity he writes, *' I feel I have lost ground 
considerably ; for in these dark moments, not being- 
able to see the smiling face of the blessed Jesus, I was 
tempted to give up my confidence relative to sanctifi- 
cation. I instantly gave way to the tempter, and re- 
linquished my hope. But, I bless God, I think I have 
learned wisdom. I see clearly the great danger of 
drawing inferences in the time of temptation. I ought 
to look to Jesus, over or through the temptation, and 
leave all that is past, pressing forward to those things 
which are before ; and I find, in so doing, that Jesus 
does hear and answer prayer, and fixes my mind on 
himself. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who has given me a name among his 
people. I am not worthy of the least of his favours, 
but, I bless his name, I feel I have no other desire than 
to be given up to him." 

March 13th, as the day on which he obtained 
mercy," was regarded by him as an era in his life, 
and on this day, 1816, he has the following entry: — 

' Hail happy day that fixed my choice, 
On thee, my Saviour and my God; 
Fain would my longing heart rejoice, 
And tell thy praises all abroad.' 

Yes ; blessed be God ! I feel at present thankful to 
God, my Father, for his ever taking notice of a sinner, 
and that the ' chief.* I have enjoyed the pardoning 
love of God for two years ; and blessed be God that I 
do not feel tired of his service. I feel I love it more 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



9 



and more. My heart's desire is, ' to know nothing 

among" men save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." I 

bless his name that he is opening the way for his 

unworthy servant to ' preach the unsearchable riches 

of Christ ' to a perishing world ; and, as my desire in 

this respect is chiefly for the missionary's life, I do not 

feel a small deo^ree of comfort on this orround." 

Up to this time Mr. Jenkins had not made known 

to any one his convictions and designs in this respect ; 

but now he was agreeably surprised to find that not 

only his juvenile friends, the Rev. A. Barber, and his 

brother, but some of those whose years and piety gave 

authority to their opinions were equally convinced 

that he ouorht to direct his attention to the ministerial 

office, improve himself in reference to this sacred 

vocation, and hold himself in readiness for the call of 

the church. On this subject, under date of April 27th, 

1816, he writes as follows : — " I see that, in order to 

be ' a workman that needeth not be ashamed,' I must 

be very diligent in the acquirement of knowledge, and 

likewise get a thorough acquaintance with my own 

heart. I see nothinor short of beinor" a Christian in 
• • • 

heart and life will qualify me for the work of the 
ministry ; therefore, by the help of God, I am deter- 
mined not to rest short of all the mind that w^as in 
Christ Jesus." 

Mr. Jenkins was made acquainted with the convic- 
tions of his friends, in reference to his future employ- 
ment in the church, just before he completed the 
eighteenth year of his age : and that one so young 
should have attracted the attention of the aged and 
pious proves him to have been possessed of both 
spiritual and mental endowments beyond his years. 
From his journal it appears that, about this time, he 
made a few attempts to speak in public at " the hos- 
pital " and other places; and, from the date of the 
following entry in his journal, it appears, his labours, 
as a local preacher, became regular, and frequently 
excessive. 

April 29th. — I bless God that nothing can satisfy 
my soul but his love, and this I have felt for some 



10 



A MEMOIR OF 



time past, in a more abundant degree than before. 
Jesus Christ is my only satisfying portion. 

" With respect to the work of the ministry, I do not 
feel inclined to give up the idea, although the very 
thought makes me tremble. Yet, through Christ 
strengthening me, I can do all things. Sometimes I 
am tempted to think it is all a delusion ; but what 
gives me very great encouragement is, whenever I 
stand up to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
help, — every thing I need, is imparted." 

" Oct. 3d. — This day has been a day of great re- 
joicing to my mind. I have been for nearly a fortnight 
with a member of our Society at Temple Cloud. I 
went over only intending to stay one day ; but our 
hearts were so united that the family would not permit 
me to leave. It was on the Saturday evening I went, 
and on the Sunday I went to a prayer-meeting, and 
exhorted for about twenty minutes, and the people 
were very much pleased, no doubt on account of my 
youth. On Thursday evening Mr. Curry gave out, 
without my knowledge, that I should preach there on 
Friday evening. At this my mind was very much 
burdened, for I found I dared not refuse. I stood up 
before nearly 150 people, in a private house, and spoke 
from these words of the publican, " God be merciful 
to me a sinner." It was a time of refreshing from the 
presence of the Lord : the greater part of the people 
were in tears. This encouraged me much ; I found 
very great liberty in speaking ; and I believe good 
was done. This is the first time I have spoken from a 
text before so many people. 

On Saturday I accompanied Mr. Curry, jun., to a 
place called Cheddar, in the Banwell circuit. I had 
not been long in the house of Mr. James Cox, before 
Mr. C. said to his wife and family, ' Mr. Jenkins will 
preach you a sermon to morrow, if you please.' To 
this they readily agreed ; but they little knew what an 
ignorant fellow I was. I therefore stood out for a long 
time, until they told me they were determined to hear 
me. I thought that, as I had made a surrender of 
myself to God for some time past, if he thought fit to 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



11 



call me to preach then, it was my duty to comply, 
although I felt myself quite insufficient for the work. 
Accordingly, the people were told that I should preach 
(but it was not published from the pulpit) ; and at six 
o'clock I ascended the pulpit for the first time. But 
what was my astonishment, when I saw 300 or 400 
people assembled to hear instruction from one so young 
and inexperienced ! My mind was very much agitated ; 
but the Lord comforted me. I spoke from these 
words : " Behold I bring you good tidings of great 
joy." All my agitation fled ; and the people w^ere 
pleased and blessed. I received many a hearty bless- 
ing from the good old people. But this did not suffice: 
nothing would please but I must preach again on 
Monday ; though we expected to leave. However, 
Mr. C. remained, and persons went about the village 
to inform the people that I should preach at seven 
o'clock ; and, when I came, the chapel was so full 
that it was with difficulty I got to the pulpit. I 
preached from ' Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's 
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' The Lord 
abundantly blessed me, and I could not for a moment 
question my call to the all-important work." 

As Mr. Jenkins kept no regular journal from the 
time he became a local preacher — probably for want 
of time — to the time of his departure from England as 
a missionary, our information respecting him will be 
gathered from his numerous letters to his aff*ectionate 
friends, and the information furnished by his excellent 
widow. She was the daughter of Mr. Cox, of Cheddar, 
the gentleman above mentioned ; and, respecting his 
early efforts, she gives the following information: — 

In October, 1817, he spent four days at Cheddar, 
and preached on Tuesday the 7th, and on the Wed- 
nesday, Thursday, and Friday ; and every service was 
attended with the influences of the Spirit in such a 
manner as the oldest members had not before witnessed. 
The chapel was filled every night, and those who had 
not till then thought about their salvation began to 
ask, " What must I do to be saved ?" He had prayer- 
meetings generally after the sermons ; and, while others 
were engaged in prayer, Mr. J. would point those in 



12 



A MEMOIR OF 



distress to the Lamb of God. His third visit was in 
November, v^hen he spent a fortnight, preaching almost 
every night. At this time many w^ere aw^akened, and 
found peace. He came again on the 18th of December, 
and spent the Christmas ; and such a season had not 
been knov^^n there before. On the 25th, his friend 
Aquila visited him, and he preached at six o'clock ; 
and his word was made a blessing to a person who 
came out of mere curiosity to hear Mr. J., a smaller 
man than himself. On the Slst, Mr. J. held a watch- 
night till after twelve o'clock, and that solemn night 
is remembered, and spoken of with pleasure, to 
this day. The congregations increased, so that we 
were obliged to enlarge the chapel ; for which Mr. J. 
and a gentleman begged the money ; and, in three or 
four months, the new gallery was completed. The class 
was divided, and from twenty to thirty new members 
added ; and, though many of them are not now in the 
society, they cannot forget what they then felt. If he 
visited Cheddar only for one day, the people expected 
he would preach ; and they think of those days with 
pleasure ; many of them wish for a return of such sea- 
sons, and they speak of him with great affection." 

In the beginning of June, 1818, Mr. Jenkins's health 
was in such a state as to render a trip to Wales 
advisable ; and the voyage seems to have been of 
very essent\al service to him ; though it appears he, 
very imprudently, began to preach almost immediately 
on his arrival. A great excitement was the general 
effect of his labours, and this was a constant tempta- 
tion to him to exceed his physical abilities ; for it 
induced many invitations from different places, and 
kept him frequently engaged in prayer-meetings until 
late at night; and he sometimes " went to his lodgings 
so worn out that he could not walk without assistance." 
That there was much that was admirable in the prin- 
ciples which led to this line of conduct no one who 
cares for the salvation of his fellow-creatures will 
question. That a mere youth, who would labour thus, 
would be much admired, by those who are never so 
well pleased with a man as when he is taking the 
shortest route to the grave, is equally indisputable ; 



THE REV. JOHN 



JENKINS. 



13 



but a suffering life, suspended labours, expensive 
afflictions, and a premature grave — the pretty certain 
consequences of such a line of conduct — should operate 
as warnings, both to those who pursue and those who 
encourage it. God knoweth our frame ; he remem- 
bereth that we are dust ; and he is not a hard jNIaster ; 
consequently, there must be a medium between the cal- 
culating apathy of the mere duty-doing minister, and 
that wasting devotedness to public exertion which 
frequently occasions the taper of life to flicker in the 
socket, and eventually extinguishes it before it has 
burned out half its days. These consequences of Mr. 
Jenkins's pious, but imprudent zeal, were early fore- 
seen by his friends, and he was faithfully warned by 
his most intimate associate, jNIr. Barber, who wrote 
him as follows, under date of June 29 : — " I have 
understood from Miss M. what has disappointed and 
grieved me much ; though I cannot say I am much 
surprised ; I mean your very imprudent conduct with 
regard to public exercises. By your letter, you gave 
me to understand that they were not frequent : but it 
seems they are both frequent and unreasonably labori- 
ous. John, you are much to blame. I had hoped 
that you had learned wisdom by your sufferings. You 
are not fit to be trusted out of the sight of those who 
have the absolute government of you. I do not know 
whether you had not better have remahied in Bristol. 
I am not unreasonable, or unkind, but I certainly do 
think that there is a way of making yourself occasion- 
ally useful in public, without running into such ex- 
tremes as those of which you are guilty. I forbear to 
say more, because I think I have just reason, from 
former communications between us, to apprehend that 
what I have just now hinted will be entirely without 
effect. My candid opinion is that you will fall a 
sacrifice to your own imprudence, long before you 
have an opportunity of being brought out by the Con- 
ference." 

Mr. Jenkins could not see, however, that he came 
under this censure, and he replied as follows : — My 
pleasure was great when I saw a parcel from Bristol : 
but heightened when I found a letter from my dear* 

c 



14 



A MEMOIR OF 



Aquila. It is a rod, I confess, which extorted teart? 
of pleasure that I had so faithful a friend ; but the rod 
was not for me; as, for once, I do not come under the 
description of the person for whom it was prepared. 
It is not, I assure you, as Miss M. represented. The 
few times I have stood up I have felt it good. Poor 
Swansea ! O ! were it not for the church I certainly 
would lay myself out ; but I fear I should become my 
own executioner. God has given me one soul at the 
Mumbles ; glory be to his name ! The kindness of 
the people is my greatest snare. Pray for me more 
than ever." As this note bears date about a month 
after his arrival in Wales.; his labours might possibly 
not then have been such as to have excited alarm, 
except as connected with the delicate state of his 
health, and consequently only in the minds of those 
who could see and reason for him, which his zeal pre- 
vented him from doino- for himself. But the foilowine: 
extract from a letter to his future partner in life will 
show what he did while in Wales, and with what suc- 
cess he laboured : — " The scene of my labours has 
been such that I have had but little time for any thing 
but prayer, for you, myself, and the church of God: 
travelling through four counties, about 2000 miles, 
and preaching about 300 times during the space of 
nine months, in which time God has made me the 
honoured instrument of bringing many to the know- 
ledge of the truth; — in Carmarthen upwards of fifty — in 
Cardigan five or six— in Pembrokeshire more than 
thirty. I have laboured night and day, in cold and 
wet, in hunger and thirst, in weariness and peril." — 
Blessed be God ! my soul I trust is in a prosperous 
5itate. I feel more love to God, more love to souls. 
O for a heart full of divine love ! spotless and pure I 
possessing a burning zeal for precious souls, that will 
enable me to spend and be spent for God ! O ! how 
many times have I wished I were incapable of fatigue ; 
that I might never cease to labour till I finish my 
course. Upon the whole, I have been very well ; 
though the wet, hard travelling, change of beds, and 
much preaching, have almost worn out my little 
strength. God was my helper, and all has been well." 



THE RET. JOHX JENKINS. 



15 



This letter was dated February 13th, 1819, just 
after Mr. J. had returned home ; and, m reference to 
his visit there, his widow remarks, " Mr. Jenkins 
visited Swansea for the restoration of his health. 
After preaching there a few times, he was invited by 
preachers and others, who had heard of his zeal, 
talent, and usefulness, to other parts of Wales." The 
destitute state of the societies, the invitations w^hich he 
received, the attention excited by his labours, and the 
blessing v/hich usually attended them, were the rea- 
sons why he spent so long a period in Wales, in a 
merely local capacity ; and these circumstances justi- 
fied the conduct of those who urged what in general 
would properly be considered a premature engage- 
ment in the regular work of the ministry. These things 
he stated with becoming humility to his young friend 
Barber, who on all occasions was his confidant. A 
regard to brevity forbids that extracts should be 
numerous"*, and the following may be sufficient. 

" My very dear Aquila, 

The bearer of this is a young lady, the 
daughter of one of our old preachers, whom I dare say 
you know, I have been in Carmarthen nearly a 
month, and have preached four times a week in the 
chapel. It will hold 1 500. The congregations are very 
large ; such as I never addressed before ; and I have 
been made acquainted with such sensations as I never 
before experienced : but God has always been better 
to me than my fears, and I have not been ashamed of 
the gospel of Christ. On week-nights the chapel is 
nearly full ; but on Sundays completely crowded, so 
that numbers are forced to go away. O could I 
describe my feelings, to see the most respectable inha- 
bitants of the town present, the galleries filled with 
them, to hear a lad speak on the truths of the gospel ! 
I almost fall in the place ; but God is my helper 3 I 
look up to him, and stay my mind on him. O my 
dear A,, were it not that I was assured of the will of 
God in coming to this place, I must not stay here. 
The greatest snare I find is the kindness of the people." 
In another letter, dated Spitall, he says, ^' I want more 



w 



A MEMOIR OF 



active love ; such a love as Jesus speaks of as being' 
the source of genuine obedience: ' If any man love 
me, he will keep my word,' &c. I want more faith, to 
hang upon the blessed Jesus, moment by moment, and 
find him all in all ; more humility, that I may be 
nothing ; to have his image stamped, and ' holiness to 
the Lord' inscribed on all I do. This has lately been 
more impressed upon my mind ; ' Be ye holy who 
bear the vessels of the Lord.' Lord, make me holy, 
loving, obedient, faithful, humble, and all like thyself. 
My dear brother, pray for me, that God may assist 
me ! Sometimes I am so sick of my performances that 
I wonder how people come to hear me. I am ill very 
frequently a couple of days before I go to preach." 

That the attention of those on whom it devolves to 
supply the church with labourers, and especially the 
heathen world with missionaries , should be turned towards 
a youth thus pious, and acceptable, and useful, is as it 
should be ; and it is quite natural that so many invita- 
tions to preach to such congregations, to a person of 
his years and ardour, and the success which attended 
his labours, should increase the temptation, to which he 
was too much disposed to yield, to labour beyond the 
proper bounds of his physical capabilities. He re- 
turned to Bristol early in 1819, owing to a request 
from his venerable superintendent, the late Rev. Wal- 
ter Griffith, for the purpose of his being at home to be 
examined at the March quarterly meeting, preparatory 
to his being proposed as a missionary to the ensuing 
district meeting and Conference. To this he alludes iu 
the letter an extract from which has been given 
above. I saw Mr. Griffith," he observes, " who was 
very glad to see me ; expressed great thankfulness at 
my being made useful ; and proposed my going a trip 
across the sea, as he calls it. He intends proposing me 
at the next quarterly meeting for the district." At 
the Conference his name was placed on the list of 
reserve," as a candidate for the ministry. The Rev. T. 
Wood, M. A., the successor of Mr. Griffith, made 
known to him the decision of Cojiference ; and, as' he 
had so long looked upon it as his duty, it was natural 



THE REV. JOHN JENKIX^. 



that he should rejoice in the prospect of success, even 
though the consummation of his wishes held out the 
prospect of a separation from his family and friends, to 
whom he was sincerely and ardently attached, and an 
afflictive contact with all the peculiarities of the mis- 
sionary field. To his friend Barber he thus expres^e^ 
himself : — 

" My dear Aquila, 

" Before this time you will have heard the 
decision of Conference respecting your friend. When 
I received the note Mr. Wood sent, my feelings could 
not be expressed. Blessed be God who has thus 
caused me to triumph in Christ. Pray that my grati- 
tude may abound more and more till Jesus has pos- 
session of all my heart — till, filled with gratitude and 
love, I am fully given up to God. I hope I am 
growing in grace, making some proficiency in the 
divine life. Providence has thus far opened my way, 
but still I dare not be too sanguine. I place myself 
in the hand of a wise and gracious God. He will do 
well. I have not quite finished Butler (Butler's 
Analogy), but w\\\ be glad if you will let me have 
Arndt's Christianity. Write me a line or two ; it is; 
like water in a thirsty land. From morning till evening 
my time is taken up. We have not been in the play- 
ground* for this week : think then of our work. 

" I am your sincere friend, 

" John." 

Being placed on the list of reserve, however, among 
the Wesley an Methodists, is frequently a severe trial to 
the patience of a young man. Sometimes, for years, 
he knows not when he will be called upon, or where 
he will be sent ; and the uncertainty as to his des- 
tination is increased if he be a candidate for the foreign 
work. That Mr. Jenkins's attention was exclusively 
directed to this is evident from a letter dated Chew 

* At this time Mr. J. was engaofed as assistant in a respectable 
boarding-school, at Zion-House, Chew Magna, near Bristol. The 
meaning is, he and his associates had been deprived of exercisfe' 
the whole week. 

c 2 



18 



A MEMOIR OF 



Magna, October 11th, 1820, upwards of twelve 
months after his being approved by the Conference. 
It was addressed to Mr. A. Barber ; and in allusion to 
his being sent for by the missionary committee he 
remarks, I have not heard from London ; what am I 
to conclude? Well; it is the Lord, let him do as 
seemeth him good. I have very little time for think- 
ing, being engaged from six to half past eight. How- 
ever, I read a little, write a little, and, I hope, pray 
and watch a little. 

Fare thee well, and, if for ever, 
Still for ever fare thoe well. 

I am, my dear Aquila, 

Thine affectionately, 

" John." 

Brother Jenkins was singularly happy in having a 
few pious and intelligent friends about his own age, 
with whom he kept up a regular correspondence, and 
whose letters must have added much to his stability 
and comfort. I greatly regret the want of Mr. A. 
Barber's letters to him, but learn from Mrs. Jenkins 
that they were lost, she thinks, with many other things, 
in a shipwreck which they suffered, in their passage 
from Jamaica to the Bahamas, in the year 1826. 
To a person in the state of suspense in which Mr. 
Jenkins was placed, from the Conference of 1819 to 
that of 1821, the following remarks must have been 
very seasonable. They are extracted from a letter 
from Mr. W. Barber, brother of the above, who was 
also an intimate friend of Mr. Jenkins, and who after- 
wards became a Wesley an missionary, and died at 
Gibraltar of a malignant fever, which was very fatal 
there, in the year 1828. 

" You, ray dear fellow, under the tuition of that 
expansive benevolence which wills the good of all, 
have ardently desired to put exertion to the wheel of 
human distress, and help it out of the mire of sinful 
lusts. How does the business get on ? Where are 
you now ? Still at Sion-House, or in London ? It 
would be a mercy for which I should feel afresh called 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



19 



to thank Divine goodness, if I might hear of your 
destination to some eastern port, and of your prepara- 
tion to depart with your lovely Sally towards it. If 
Providence really intends you to go, there must be 
some adequate reasons for his permitting your subjec- 
tion to so severe a trial of your patience. You are, I 
hope, solicitous to discover these, if it should be proper 
you should know them, and desirous they should have 
their proper effects if it be not. Is it not well that a 
life of privation and self-denial — for such must a mis- 
sionary's life be — should be gently introduced by a 
course of discipline which is calculated to put his 
graces to the test, and show him how very much he will 
really want ? The distance of the occupation, and the 
business of preparation between the anticipation and 
the reality, serve too often, I believe, to heighten the 
effect of the distant appearance. They only produce 
the effect of foils behind a jewel ; what they add is de- 
lusive, and, taken away, they diminish nothing of the 
value. Do not think me reasoning like a stoic. You 
know I am no stoic on this subject. But it seems a 
point of Christian virtue very desirable to be attained, 
to desire the work of a missionary solely for its own 
sake ; that is, saving the souls of the heathen for the 
sake of Jesus Christ. Nothing but this, I am per- 
suaded, can make it a bearable situation ; nothing but 
the closest communion with Jesus Christ can secure 
this. But how does Sarah stand affected ? She, I 
hope, is too deeply pious, not to show you a pattern of 
holy submission. Well, the Lord bless you both I 
My cordial prayers go up for your speedy, happy, 
lasting union, in person, purposes, plans, engagements^ 
usefulness, &c. &c. Believe me 

*' Yours, with increasing ' brotherly kindness.' 

" W. Barber;^ 



^0 



A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Jenkins appointed zo Ashburton. — Remarks on 
the probation of missionaries, — Labours in the Ash- 
burton circuit. — Opposed by a clergyman, — Illness* 
— Seve7^al times in great danger,— Letter to Rev: A, 
Barber, — Letter to Mr, Jenkins, Sen, — Acceptable 
and successful labours.— Letter from Rev, A, Bar- 
ber : revival in his circuit, — Mr, Jenkins appointed 
a third year to Ashburton. — Is requested to hold 
himself in readiness to be examined as a missionary , 
— Letter to his sister on the subject, — His appoint- 
ment to Jamaica, — Anecdote of a Cornish cynic, — 
Letter from Rev, J, Saunders, — Lines on the por- 
trait of Mrs, H. Newell. 

At the Conference of 1821, Mr. Jenkins received 
an appointment, though it was not, as he desired and 
expected, to a foreign station. He was appointed to 
the Ashburton circuit, Devonshire. Probably the 
reason was, that one so young might serve his proba- 
tion at home ; a measure which is desirable in reference 
to all who are destined for the missionary field. One 
of the best rules ever made by the British Conference 
was made in 1827, and with one or two exceptions it 
was intended to provide for this ; but unhappily, for 
reasons no doubt satisfactory to all the parties con- 
cerned, the exceptions have chiefly been carried out 
into practice. Such a probation in the work at home 
would add much to the experience of those who are 
employed, and consequently to the efficiency of our 
missions. Youthful piety, and incipient information, 
come in more constant contact with the means of 
stability and increase at home than abroad ; and here 
youtbful ardour meets more frequently with those who 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



21 



will extend to it their charities rather than magnify its 
exuberances, and who will give it the wholesome direc- 
tions of prudence rather than chill it by the blasts of 
persecution. The Wesleyan missions stand unrivalled 
amonof those of modern times for both their extent and 
efficiency. O what might they not have been if all 
who have been employed upon them had passed 
through the crucible of a four years' probation at home 
before they were thrown into the entirely new society, 
circumstances, and labours, into which they are thrown 
immediately on their setting foot on board a ship for 
ajforeign station! This advantage Mr. Jenkins enjoyed. 

But, though Mr. Jenkins was appointed to an Eng- 
lish circuit, he only regarded himself as a probationer 
for the foreign work ; and how well his labours in 
Ashburton and its neighbourhood were calculated to 
inure him to the hardships of the missionary field will 
be evident from the followinof letter to Mr. A. Barber. 
It is written, like all Mr. Jenkins's letters,,to him, in the 
unrestrained language of youthful ^nU affectionate 
familiarity: but such language the writer of this 
Memoir regards as the life of epistolary correspond- 
ence, and he disclaims all sympathy with those who 
}nay regard it as requiring any apology. 

" Buckfastleigh, September 18, 18^1. 

" My very dear brother Quill, 

" To occupy your time and my head in framing 
apologies for not writing you sooner, I consider useless, 
as I wished to give you a view of the circuit, places, 
prospects of usefulness, &c. &c. This you know 
would be impossible before a visit. 

The circuit is large, and we go round it in a 
month, visiting most of the places but once a fortnight, 
preach about thirty-two sermons, and travel more than 
300 miles on an average every month. By this you 
will perceive my time is nearly filled up. O my dear A. . 

* 'Tis all mj business here below 
To ciy, Behold .the Lamb ! ' 

For this I feel grateful and humble ; and I hope I am 



22 



A MEMOIR OF 



determined to be spent for the salvation of the people 
among whom I labour. The rides and walks are 
sometimes long. I rode on Sunday twenty-six miles, 
and preached three times ; thirteen miles after preach- 
ing in the evening. But. thank God, I was never so 
well as at present. The people are kind. I hope to 
have a good year with them, or at least till I am called 
out, which Mr. Saunders says will not be, if he can 
prevent it, till Conference. Mr, S. is an affectionate- 
judicious, zealous, Cornish-man, and he has the affec- 
tions of the people, who find him a Methodist preacher. 
Mrs. S. is deeply pious, and very attentive and kind. 
I am as a son to them, for they have no children, and 
we live in each other's affections. Our prospects of 
usefulness are great. Glory be to the great Head of 
the church, he has commenced a good work at this 
season, the renewal of the tickets ; the people are 
alive to God, and crying ' O Lord : revive thy work ! ' 
Blessed be God, my mind is deeply in earnest for a 
full salvation. I want a clean heart, that I may more 
fully live in the spirit of my work. O my dear Quill, 
what am I, what can I do? but the Lord is my help, 
praise his name ! he is my all in all, and I will live to 
his glory ; for God alone shall possess all my heart. 

" 20th. I am now at —-■ , having to preach 

here under painful circumstances, the people not being 
pleased at the removal of the last preachers. I have 
constant exercise for all my grace ; but praise the 
blessed Jesus ! my strength is equal to my need ; but 
I need your prayers, your constant, most earnest 
prayers, that I may stand, and, having done all, stand. 
This is a little seasoning. God has sent me to learn 
some important lessons. I am in his hands, to be used 
for his glory in any way. 

" Accept the affectionate love of 

" Your sincere friend, 

" John." 

A letter under date of July 23rd, 1822, brings our 
information to the end of the first year of his itine- 
rancy. The following is an extract, and shows what 
were some of his labours, sufferings, and successes. 



THE RET. 



JOHN JENKINS. 



23 



I believe I told you that I had to prea,ch on the 

Lord's-day after I left you at ■ . This I did, 

not a little to the annoyance of the parson (who can 
hunt, drink, shoot, &c. &c. <S:c.), and who the next 
time, when it was Mr. S.'s turn, came with his clerk 
to disperse the crowd : for we had 300 persons, and 
we stood in the middle of the town, where the revel 
is held, the bulls baited, &c. He first talked, then 
pushed, next threatened, &c. I was giving out 
' Jesus, the name high over all,' and sung with all my 
might. However, after a great deal of labour, he sent 
some from the opposite wall to look on. When I had 
finished, he came to us and asked us for our licenses. 
These were at home. He told us we were on un- 
licensed ground, (Src, and wished the people not to 
hear us. However, afler he finished his speech, I 
prayed, and Mr. S. published for me to preach the 
next Lord's-day fortnight. Just before this time, 
however, we were both summoned before the rulers of 
the people. This did not prevent my going to preach ; 
and, on the Tuesday after, we waited on the magistrates, 
and answered before them for our conduct. They 
blustered, but they were silenced : for we produced the 
law, which brought them to the blush, proved that the 
principal person perjured himself twice, and that they 
were acting illegally. We told them prison was 
nothing to us ; for not a farthing would we pay : and 
that, whatever injunctions they laid us under, we 
should ' obey God rather than man.' They dismissed 
us with, ' It is an important case, and we will think of 
it.' I suppose we shall hear no more. However, it 
has been productive of much good. The Lord has 
given us favour in the eyes of the people, and this 
shall work for his glory. Bless the Lord, O my soul ! 

For some time I have been preaching four times 
on the Lord's day, and sometimes ride thirty miles, 
besides preaching every night in the week. This, as 
you may suppose, is more than I can bear, and I have 
at last been forced to give way ; for at present I am 
not able to preach. I do not think I have any settled 
disease, but a general weakness from over-exertion. 
Mr. Saunders thinks this afhiction is sent to prevent my 



24 



A MEMOIR OF 



going abroad ; but that is with the Lord, and in his 
hands I leave it entirely. I hear I am expected by 
many at Plymouth-Dock, with my old friend Mr. 
Martin, but that I leave if the Lord see fit. I think a 
removal would be well, as the work here appears too 
hard for me, because I cannot spare myself. But I 
wi&h to be just where the Head of the church shall 
appoint. We have an increase of eighty members, 
and thirty at present on trial this year. For this I am 
sure you will be thankful. Bless the Lord ! Amen." 

The following is one of a few entries which he made 
in his journal during his first year in Ashburton ; but 
which it is not surprising, considering his labours, he 
did not keep with regularity. 

" My mercies have been very numerous. Four 
times T have been delivered from the very jaws of 
death: the effects I now feel. Once I lost my way, 
and w andered, almost in a state of derangement, many 
miles over a common in the dark. Another time I was 
carried over a bridge into the water, in consequence of 
the excessive darkness of the night, which rendered 
it impossible for either myself or my horse to see the 
path. A third time my horse took fright at the top of 
a steep rocky hill, and ran, with unmanageable 
velocity, to the bottom ; where, losing his feet, we 
were both precipitated into the river which ran at the 
bottom. A fourth time he fell and threw me a con - 
siderable distance over his head. Here let me stand and 
adore ; for not one of all the good things which the 
Lord has promised has failed." 

In consequence of the first of these casualties he 
was confined a week : from the second he received no 
injury ; from the third a slight bruise ; and from the 
last a considerable one, which prevented the use of his 
arm for nearly three weeks. 

From a letter dated the 18th of October, it appears 
he had been afflicted with an attack of paralysis, but 
soon recovered ; and from the following extract from a 
letter to his friend Barber, now also in the work of 



THE REV. JOHN JEXKIX5. 



25 



of the ministry, it appears he was again equal to his 
uninterrupted labours. 

" NothinsT orives me more solid satisfaction, in con- 
nexion with your present circuit, than the prospect you 
have of comfort and prosperity. iMay the Lord of the 
harvest make you very, very, holy and useful. For 
this I am confident you wish to live. Here let me 
stop and look back two or three years. Bless the 
Lord, we are both at last in the work which we love, 
and which has occasioned us so much anxiety, weep- 
ing, and prayer. Let us perform our vows by hving 
to the glory of the Redeemer. 

" In this circuit the Lord is with us : the work is 
hard, as we have but two Saturday evenings in the 
month vacant, and much travelling. We walk some- 
times twelve or fourteen miles, which with preaching, 
&c. &c., renders rest pleasant. But souls are brought 
to God. Last quarter twenty -four, and about the 
same number on trial. Praise the Lord with me ! I 
w^ll not complain, for ' the best of all is God with us^' 
and, if good be effected in his great name, no priva- 
tion is too great, or labour too mighty. 

Pray for me fervently that the Lord may preserve 
me : and be assured I never forget you. My love to 
your superintendent and family, and tell them to be 

sure and use you well, or . IMind and write 

soon to 

Your affectionate friend, 

John Jenkins." 

The following extract of a letter from Mr. Jenkins 
to his father, dated February 14th, 1823, shows his 
affection as a son, and his zeal, acceptableness, and joy 
in success, as a minister ; and it also prepares our 
mind for his third year's appointment to the Ashburton 
circuit, by request of those who knew his worth. 

My dear father 

" Will lawfully expect a letter when he sees or 
hears that I have transmitted a packet, and in it will 
naturally enough expect very much news; and, 

D 



25 



A MEMOIR OF 



really, I have so many things to say that I know not 
on what to fix. The world and every thing in it is so 
full of changes that every day's feeling, &c., furnishes 
more than enough for a letter. I will begin, however, 
by stating that I do not forget you and my dear 
mother, and that the place which you hold in my 
thoughts and affections is so considerable that an hour 
does not pass, I think, in my waking time, but you are 
present with me. The blessings I enjoy I owe under 
the Governor of all things to religious parents, and the 
obligations I am under will certainly never be for- 
gotten. 

" The winter has been severe. I have felt it ; and 
several times thought it impossible to go through ; but 
I received help. During the most severe part I was 
in the Tiverton circuit (to which I have a very press- 
ing invitation for the next year). The people were 
exceedingly kind, and I received every attention they 
could afford. 'Tis humbling to think ' the servant is 
above his Lord yet so it is. ' Bless the Lord, O my 
souir 

Mr. Saunders and myself are invited to remain a 
third year ; but what will be done I know not, neither 
am I anxious to know, as the Head of the church will 
make the way plain if I put my trust in him, and in 
him I think I put my trust. Ashburton is in a very 
blessed state. Every week we have additions ; last 
week eight. Taking into account the spirit that pre- 
vails, God's arm has been indeed made bare. We 
were 300 when we came, now we are more than 500. 
It is the Lord's doing, and blessed be the name of the 
Lord! 

" I at present enjoy tolerable health ; and hoping 
mother, yourself, and all the family are in possession 
of the same blessing, I subscribe myself 

" Your affectionate son, 

" John." 

The following letter contains the Rev. A. Barber's 
opinion of Mr. Jenkins's appointment to the Ashburton 
circuit for a third year, and his wish to induce him to 
remove into the neighbourhood of St. Neots, in which 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



27 



circuit Mr. B. was travelling, and in which it will be 
seen there was an extensive revival of religion. 

St, Neots, IQth April, 1823. 

My dear John, 

" Though I scarcely know how to spare time to 
>vrite even to you, yet necessity, and the hope of being' 
able to prevail with you to come to B., have prevailed 
over every other consideration. They say I am always 
arguing. Well, well ; I don't mind so long as it is in 
a good cause, and I can gain my point so far as to be 
consistent with propriety. Let me then try my 
strength in the matter that lies before me. Your 
attention is divided between three places. With 
respect to the first, it certainly is much to your credit 
to receive an invitation to remain a third year with 
them. But both Mr. W. and myself are of opinion 
that Conference will appoint no young man on trial in 
his first circuit three successive years. They will con- 
sider that, if you are worth any thing, one circuit ought 
not to monopolize your labours ; and, in addition to 
this, they will think that removing you to another cir- 
cuit, by adding to your experience, will more effectu- 
ally qualify you for church-government in future. So 
that I think you will be sure to be removed. With 

regard to , as far as I can learn from your 

representation, I should be afraid of a capricious 
people, who have used other preachers ill. Besides, I do 
not think that your bodily health is of that robust 
description that would long support your sort of 
preaching in a large chapeL Though you might feel 
it easier for a time, I am greatly apprehensive you 
would make too free with your voice ; which will per- 
haps bring you to your grave sooner or later. Now, 
as it respects B.^ neither of these difficulties occur. 
As far as I have had an opportunity of ascertaining, 
the people are kind and attentive to their preachers. 
The chapel will contain 300 or 400 people ; in the 
town they have sixty or seventy members, and about 
1300 inhabitants; and the comforts of the home I 
believe are desirable. I certainly think you had 
better make up your mind to come here ; send me 



28 



A MEMOIR OF 



therefore a letter to that effect, at or before the begin- 
ning of the week after next, about which time I 
expect to see Mr. M., and then he will strain every 
nerve to effect your removal. 

The Lord still continues to work among us in a 
marvellous manner. More than 120 convinced since 
last Sabbath six weeks, and about 105 put into classes. 
A revival has also broken out in the church of an evan- 
gelical clergyman with whom I am intimate, and who 
lives about six miles from this place. Expecting me 
at his house one day, he puolished for a prayer-meeting 
at one of his parishioner's, intending me to stay all 
night with him. I consented. Our meeting lasted 
about three hours and a half, and about ten souls were 
in distress. This was not the commencement of it, 
for it had begun some few weeks before. One week 
nine penitents were made happy in the love of God. 
This gentleman is for all the world like a Methodist. 
He encourages the distressed as we do, and one of his 
parishioners gave me as clear an account as ever I 
heard of the way in which she received and retained 
entire holiness. Glory, glory be to God ! We seem 
to be alive almost every where. There is one wicked 
country village in our circuit (where I was grossly 
insulted one day when I preached in the open air, a 
butcher having pushed me off my standing-place while 
I was engaged in prayer) that is so stirred up that 
my last week-night congregation was 100. One girl 
was so exasperated at the conversion of her two sisters, 
her brother-in-law, and her cousin, that she became 
almost as much like a fiend as a female ; and she told 
me, yesterday, that if at that time I had dared to speak 
to her, in any of our prayer-meetings, she would 
have beaten me in the place; and even her own 
relatives tell me, such is her spirit, that she would 
have been as good as her word. But she has been 
brought down ; the lion became a lamb ; she sued for 
mercy in several of our meetings, found peace, and 
joined society. She and her friends went thirteen 
miles to hear me preach yesterday. What hath God 
wrought ! Adieu. W^rite as above directed to ^ 
Yours affectionately, 

" Aquila Barber. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKTXS. 



Great interest was made, however, with the presi- 
dent of Conference by an official communication from 
the June quarterly meeting, and with several of the 
influential members of the Conference, for Mr. Jen- 
kins's re-appointment to Ashburton for a third year, 
and the applications succeeded. Mr. Saunders, his 
superintendent, went to Conference, bent on using all 
his influence to secure his return, and he wrote Mr. J. 
as follows, under date of July 1 1th : — " The eyes of 
some of the preachers have been turned towards Ash- 
burton ; and no doubt sacrilegious hands and oppres- 
sive arms would be directed towards us but for the 
drawn and brandished swords of the " one-and-all " 
men who have hitherto guarded our prosperity ; and 
we hope to retain you, for I think your station w^ill 
not be affected by home work, and I have not heard 
an intimation of your going abroad. If I hear any 
thing, I will instantly let you know." This appoint- 
ment must have been very gratifying to so young 
a man as Mr. Jenkins, who was employed in the Wes- 
leyan Methodist itinerancy, which subjects the charac- 
ters, and abilities, and doctrines, and appointments, of 
all its agents, to the annual inspection of a Conference 
of its most approved ministers, who seldom appoint 
its juvenile preachers three successive years to the same 
circuit, even at the request of their friends. 

Notwithstanding the silence of Conference in refer- 
ence to Mr. Jenkins's going abroad, the Rev. Richard 
Watson, one of the missionary secretaries, had inti- 
mated, some time previously, that " they considered 
him as their man ; " and, on the 13th of September, a 
letter was forwarded by the Rev. Joseph Taylor, 
another of the secretaries, informing him that he 

supposed they should want him in a few weeks," 
and promising to get the president to supply his 
place in the Ashburton circuit with an acceptable 
preacher." In a letter dated the 31st of October he 
says, " The president has authorized the missionary 
committee to call you up to town, and to supply your 
place. You will come direct to town. 

I am; my dear brother, yours truly, 

Joseph Taylor." 

D 2 



30 



A MEMOIR OF 



This requisition being the result of a previous under- 
standing, and so consonant with Mr. Jenkins's desires, 
he now prepared for his future and foreign destination ; 
and the following letters are tine specimens of the 
union of sacrifice and affection in which he commenced 
his preparations : — 

My dear sister Sue should have heard from me 
very much sooner and oftener but for the numerous 
and pressing engagements to which I have had to 
attend. However, I know she will not think that her 
brother has forgotten her, or that he ceases to cherish 
those impressions made by her sympathy and solicitude ; 
for, ' while my heart can love, I'll love thee, thee I'll 
love.' How mysterious are the ways of Providence 
in uniting us in families, and yet how benevolent and 
wise! I know not why Providence gave you such a 
brother as myself ; but he has done so, and all our 
relationships are to be attributed to God's interposition. 
I know not a family on earth with which I should wish 
myself connected but the family with which I am con- 
nected ; I know not a father, mother, sisters, and 
brothers, that I should like to be connected with as I 
am with you. And yet such is the state of things, in 
this changing world, that the most happy unions with 
creatures are formed but to be dissolved by separations 
of various kinds. To the minds of wicked persons 
this is dreadfully appalling ; but to the minds of 
Christians, who are united here and hereafter by the 
most indissoluble bonds, the thought only suggests the 
might, and wisdom, and interest, of a gracious God. 

" I am led to these thoughts by the probabihty that 
I shall be appointed to a foreign station this year ; and 
it has been the object my heart has always hung about. 
I feel thankful to the Head of the church that he does 
me so much honour as not only to put me into the 
ministry, but to make me an apostle of His to distant 
Gentile nations. O my dear S., my heart fires at the 
thought, and I long to bear the cross, and to publish 
the glad sound to the millions of dying heathen ! The 
Lord knows I am not qualified for this great work, 
but he can produce the fitness. Tell my dear mother, 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



31 



father, sister, and brothers, that they may unite with 
me in prayer and praise to the Head of all things in 
heaven and earth. O let us give ourselves to him, and 
fight for him, and die for him in the thickest and hottest 
part of the battle, shouting victory ! victory I Glory 
be to God ! Glory be to God ! If all turn out as I 
expect, I shall be in Bristol next week on my way to 
London. I am now very bus^^-, bidding farewell to my 
kind friends in Devonshire. It is painful work, but it 
is for Jesus and precious souls. After Tuesday you 
may expect that I shall pop upon you some morning 
to breakfast. Pray on, my Sue, pray on, and we 
shall meet about our Father's throne. 

" I am your affectionate brother, 

" John." 

11, Hatton Garden, London, Dec. 4th, 1823. 
" But a few minutes have elapsed since I received, 
from my kind friend ]Mr. Taylor, the final decision of 
the committee respecting my appointment ; which is 
the Island of Jamaica, but that part of it which is 
opposite the coast of Spanish America, at which place 
I am, as soon as I have a competent knowledge of the 
Spanish language, to commence a missionary station. 
I hope this will perfectly accord with your feelings 
and those of my dear mother, as also of my sisters and 
brothers ; for, be assured, no circumstance will add to 
my happiness more than to leave this land with the 
full consent of those who are most dear to me in it. 
I need not attempt to assure you that no motive but 
a conviction of duty could ever induce me to think of 
leaving England, where I have the appearance of so 
much real comfort, both in the church and in the 
world. But the Christian, my dear father, and more 
especially the Christian minister, is at the disposal of 
the great Head of the church, and God forbid that I 
should feel the smallest degree of hesitation when he 
cfives the word ' gfo.' 

" I bless God for Christian parents. Your memory I 
shall love, not only with the affection of a child, but of 
one brought to God through your prayers. Then recol- 
lect that you have a large share of the honour attached 



32 



A MEMOIR OF 



to turning many to righteousness ; and, in the eternal 
world, you will look upon the heathen brought to God 
through your son's ministry as your children in the 
Lord. All will be well, only let us pray on and live to 
God. 

" I hope to be with you by the end of next week ; 
but before that time let me hear from you. My love 
to my dear mother, sisters, and brothers, and be assured 
I feel myself 

" Your son, 

John." 

" Mr. John Jenkins." 

" Mission- House ^ London^ Dec. 5th, 1823. 
My dear brother, 

" A post has not left town since I had the op- 
portunity of giving you positive information respecting 
my appointment, which is at last fixed. The few lines 
I wrote in Mr. Taylor's letter contained but general 
remarks, for my mind was not in a composed and 
happy state. However, I am at present in a more 
fixed and collected condition, and I can, with some 
degree of proper feeling, look upon the transac- 
tions that have transpired. They are important, and I 
hope they are not the effects of premature thought. 
They are awful, and have been, I trust, directed by 
the infinite One. They are interesting, not only to 
myself, but to the heathen ; they are affecting, and 
have caused an indescribable sacrifice of feeling. They 
relate to God, to souls, to eternity. 

" I found my dear S., the morning after I left you, in 
better health and spirits than I expected. She seemed 
to have resumed her wonted cheerfulness ; and the 
effect upon my mind you may guess, as it at once 
relieved me from the apprehensions I felt. Her mind 
seemed prepared for the statements I made ; and, with 
the feeling of a truly devoted servant of Jesus, she 
wept submission to his will. We offered our souls and 
bodies to the Head of the church, to try to do his will. 
Her mother felt better prepared than I expected to 
find her. So graciously has the Lord dealt with me 
that I think, after all, she will consent. It will be 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



33 



reluctantly, yet I think she will consent. Bless the 
Lord, O niy soul ! My parents, especially my 
mother, felt exquisitely ; so much so that I dare not 
think of it. However, after they permitted Christian 
feeling- to speak, the parent yielded, and I could dis- 
cover in their words, and in the tone of their expres- 
sion, something like ' th}^ will be done.' 

I reached this place on Wednesday morning in 
safety, but was not introduced to the committee till the 
day before yesterday. They received me with more 
of the warmth of kindness than I can express : and 
after an examination, with which they expressed their 
satisfaction, they conceived that I should first proceed 
to a part of Jamaica not yet occupied by our mis- 
sionaries ; and, after opening a mission there, pro- 
ceed to Mexico, for the purpose of introducing a 
mission in South America. I am just beginning the 
Spanish language with that view. I am to leave 
England about the end of this month w^ith a young 
man who is to accompany me. iSIy ordination will 
take place either at Bristol or Bath : and O how 
much it would delight my heart to have my friend 
Mr. Saunders present to hold up my hands on that 
trying occasion ! 

" My very, very, very, kind love to Mrs. Saunders, 
and assure her that as long as I can think I will with 
pleasure cherish her memory and her kindness to one 
of the most unworthy of my Master's disciples. It 
will be useless to mention the names of my dear friends, 
but please to give my love to them all. Pray for me 
often and fervently, and be convinced I am 

" Yours most affectionately, 

John Jenkins." 

From what the writer of this memoir saw of brother 
Jenkins, during an acquaintance v/hich he laments was 
so short, he considers him as having been one of the 
most amiable of men, but one whose natural disposi- 
tion placed him much under the control of exciting 
occasions and social influences, and consequently one 
whose unrestrained intercourse with his affectionate, 
and confidential, and youthful friends, was open to the 



34 



A MEMOIR OF 



misconstruction of men of more advanced years and 
of severer minds. Besides, the involuntary efforts of 
such a mind to regain its elasticity in social intercourse, 
after the oppressions of study, vrould increase the 
liability to give offence to those w^ho seldom see a 
preacher smile but his smiles offend. To avoid offend- 
ing such persons, a man who is at the same time 
studious and happy must be more than human. On 
one occasion, at least, the great and pious Wesley 
is said to have failed. A Cornish cynic had long 
vrished an introduction to the deserved object of so 
much esteem, and doubtless he expected to see severity 
personified, for such a one with him was the beau ideal 
of excellence. But he left the company of Mr. W. 
quite undeceived, highly offended, and even doubtful 
of the sincerity of his piety, because, forsooth, he had 
seen him laugh ! Laughter, however, is a natural 
and patriarchal expression of pleasurable emotions, 
which God himself did not reprove in the father of 
the faithful (Gen. xvii. 17) ; and it is no reproach to 
a man's piety if affectionate familiarity should some- 
times furnish occasion for cynics to snarl at what they 
call his " levity." Mr. Jenkins did not always escape 
the censure of men of leaden minds, inflexible muscles, 
and slanderous tongues, as will be seen from a letter 
from the Rev. J. Saunders (his superintendent while 
at Ashburton) to Mr. Jenkins's widow. It is dated 
October 7th, 1831 ; but, as it gives some account of 
him while in the Ashburton circuit, it properly belongs 
to this part of his memoir. Impartiality requires that 
his testimony should be given entire ; and for these 
prefatory remarks the writer is accountable. The 
letter is as follows : — 

" My dear sister Jenkins, 

" Yours of the 26th ult. duly came to hand, 
and I am sorry that several most important engage- 
ments have prevented my replying till now ; and I 
fear that what even nov/ I may communicate will not 
be perfectly satisfactory to you or to myself. I would 
do my best to meet your wishes, which might have 
been done better had an earlier application been made. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



35 



Your dear departed friend was called to leave his 
beloved home and endeared connexions, and tu engage 
in the itinerant work, by the Conference of 1821, and 
was appointed (as a lent missionary) to the Ashburton 
circuit, Devon, at which station I was appointed a 
second time by the same Conference. Aware of the 
peculiar desirableness of having an affectionate, faith- 
ful friend in one's colleague, it was my endeavour, in 
every possible way, to serve him and contribute to his 
comfort ; and in this my dear wife was not a whit 
behind me, but always endeavoured to make our 
house (of which he was an inmate) desirable. His 
letters testify that he was more than satisfied : and I 
am happy to say that we usually found him a most 
agreeable inmate. Indeed we looked upon him as a 
sort of elder though only son : and as a family we were 
happy. 

" I am sorry to say that we found the circuit in a 
most disordered state ; most of its societies greatly 
reduced in the number of their members ; and in many 
other respects the reverse of what a minister of the 
Lord Jesus Christ would wish. We thouofht it best 
first to give ourselves to the Lord, and then to the 
circuit by the will of God; and we did so. Our plans 
of procedure were the result of deep thought and 
mutual consultation and deliberation, beor-un and fol- 
lowed by prayer ; and, glory be to God ! we soon 
beheld that our labour was not in vain in the Lord. 
In various parts, the moral wilderness, and solitary 
places, did both bud and blossom. 

" I soon had the pleasure to perceive that I had, in 
my colleague and helper, one of an intelligent mind, 
accompanied by an unusual warmth of zeal for the 
Lord of Hosts. The latter at times appeared to over- 
step the bounds of prudence : as when he would preach 
three times on a Lord's-day in the chapel, and, at its 
close or commencement, take'his stand in the open air, 
and with a voice that astonished all that heard him, 
and regardless of consequences, preach for an hour or 
upwards the unsearchable riches of Christ. From 
these and other exertions, which I was afraid would 
injure him, and which I in former times had indulged 



36 



A MEMOIR OF 



in, I endeavoured to dissuade him ; but our prudence, 
so called, was not to stand in his way in snatching 
perishing souls out of the fire, or prevent him doing 
what he judged to be the will of God. He was a 
man of a social soul, and at times it was thought by 
some that his friendship bordered on levity, which they 
did not fail to take the advantage of. But he was 
admired by many ; he was welcomed by most ; and 
esteemed by all. He was very popular throughout the 
circuit; diligent and studious; never imemployed ; 
and, as a poet, he was frequently led by his fertile 
mind from nature up to nature's God. 

" God was with us in our work, and almost every 
society in the circuit prospered. Some new ones were 
formed; and, at the close of our two years' blessed 
toil, we had a clear increase of more than 100 mem- 
bers, the circuit free from debt, and money in the 
steward's hands. By the special request of the cir- 
cuit we were appointed to them a third year ; but our 
comfort was soon to be interrupted by the call of the 
missionary committee for Mr. Jenkins, who left us 
JVovember 7th, 1823. I must say that I was never 
fully satisfied that his health was equal to such service: 
but medical opinion (which I took) and the committee 
were against me in this, and he was torn from us, to 
the great grief of many, who were to see his face no 
more. I send three letters from Mr. J. to me, the 
only ones I can now find, and you or Mr. Jackson 
may extract what you like from them ; but I shall 
fully expect to have them returned. Set my name 
down for eight copies of Mr. Jenkins's Life. My dear 
Jane unites in sincerest love to you and the family. 

" Yours affectionately, 

" J. Saunders." 

On this letter it is but just to present the remarks of 
Mrs. Jenkins to the writer of this memoir. They are 
as follows : — " I and Mr. Jenkins's family, who ought 
to know something of his character, could not perceive 
in his friendship any thing like trifling. I am rather 
surprised that any one should have thought that his 
friendship bordered on levity. He was innocently 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



37 



cheerful, but no trifler.'' The precise boundary be- 
tween " innocent cheerfulness " and levity " will be 
differently drawn by different minds ; and, where pre- 
cision is impossible, charity is most essential. " Let 
every one be fully persuaded in his own mind;" and 

let us not judge one another any more." 

The following is one of Mr. Jenkins's poetic effu- 
sions, which, as it was composed during his last year in 
the Ashburton circuit, may form an appropriate con- 
clusion to this chapter. It was written on the blank 
side of a paper that bears the likeness of the late MrSe 
H. Newell. 

' She was 

A gem of softest raj, 

A flower of lovely hue, 
A note of sweetest key, 

A drop of morning' dew ; 
But gems will cease to shine, 

And flowers forget their hue, 
And notes their sounds decline. 

And transient is the dew. 
But there's a clime where gems are found 
Of ever-during ray ; 

And flowers ne'er wither on that ground. 

So fair and bright are they j 
And notes bear raptures as they fly 

On music's wings divine : 
And sparkling dew-drops ever lie, 

So steadily they shine. 

John Jenkins." 

Plymouth- Dock, August 5th, 1823." 



38 



A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Mr, Jenkinses ordination, — Marriage, — Sails for 
Jamaica, — Reflections on leaving home. — A storm. 
— Driven info the Cove of Cork,— Letter to Mr, 
Jenkins's parents, — Leaves Lreland, — Pilot-boat 
upset, and narrow escape of the creiu. — Reflections 
on losing sight of Waterford light-house. — Unable 
to have divine service on board. — Character and 
kindness of the captain, — Divine service on deck. — 
Flying-fish, — Dolphin, — Mr, Jenkinses birth-day, 
— Passes the Leeward Islands.'' — Jamaica in 
sight. — Lands at Morant-Bay. — Kindness of the 
Rev, Mr. Treiv, the Rector, — Visit to a sugar^ 
estate, — Visit to the burying -ground, — Tedious 
passage to Kingston, — Wesley an chapels and con- 
gregations in Kingston, — Sickness of Mr. Allen. — 
Mr, Jenkins stationed at Grateful- Hill. — Death 
of Mr. Allen. 

With his designation to the work of the mission, to 
which he had so lately been appointed by the impK)- 
sition of hands, Mr. Jenkins resumed his journal. 
The following are extracts : — 

" Many are the purposes for which a remembrance 
of facts may be perpetuated ; vanity, personal aggran- 
dizement, or lasting fame ; but from these I am saved. 
As the observations are individual and momentary, 
the description shall close with existence, shall perish 
with mortality. Yet they shall answer these import- 
ant ends, shall lead me to praise the great Author of 
my life ' for all that is past, and to trust him for all that 
is to come.' 

" The term era has of late become exceedingly 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



39 



popular, and it may be because the world is disposed 
to give importance to its subjects by words. But, let 
its inclination be what it may, it is a word which is 
calculated to answer my purpose better than any word 
I am acquainted with at present. While I live I shall 
be induced to look upon the 8th of January, 1824, as 
one of the most momentous days of my existence ; as 
during the evening of that day I was set apart, by the 
imposition of hands, for the work of the ministry 
among the heathen. The feelings of my mind during 
the service were the most solemn I ever experienced. 

" The time that passed between this and the day of 
our departure from England was spent in bustle that 
has not the most profitable tendency. O how easy is 
it, even for pious people, w^hen the object is visiting, 
to lose a sense of the Divme favour, or the abiding 
presence of God ! My dear wife * and myself had 
frequent opportunities of being thankful to the great 
Head of the church for the friends he has given us, 
and the solicitude they evince for our welfare, and of 
regretting the want of spirituality in our feelings and 
conversations. Probably this was mutual. My soul 
be thou diligent, and live for God and souls." 

The writer regards the above extract as a protest 
against that senseless vapid conversation, and those use- 
less complimentary visits, which all are sometimes called 
to endure and more or less lament, and with which a 
newly-married couple, just on the eve of their de- 
parture for a foreign station, would probably be not a 
little annoyed. But he protests (and he know^s he 
might do it in the name of the subject of this memoir) 
against it being so construed as to countenance an 
idea, which he fears is too prevalent, that conversation 
in all companies must either be " spiritual," or we 
must " lose a sense of the divine favour." This he 
regards as chiefly the idea of religious gossips, who 
force their conversation in all companies, and by this 
means satiate many who are well-disposed with com- 
mon-place religious chit-chat, and disgust those who 
are not. Our blessed Lord spoke of ^' the mysteries 

I * Mr. Jenkins's marriage, here referred to, took place the day 
I before his ordination. 



40 



A MEMOIR OF 



of the kingdom of heaven" to his enquiring disciples 
alone, and thereby avoided " casting* his^pearls before 
swine." Hov^ much true religion has been ''trampled 
upon" and " rent," by those who have been offended 
by an officious obtrusion of spiritual conversation," 
is too well known to need either proof or illustration ; 
and it is something more than a mere curious specula- 
tion to determine in what degree this conduct may 
have induced that lamentable insensibility to vital god- 
liness which is so manifest in the lives of many of the 
children of those whose profession of spiritual reli- 
gion," and incessant conversation respecting it, show 
more zeal than knowledge. When the company is 
select, a tea-party may occasionally and properly be 
turned into a class-meeting ; but should an hour be 
spent in such intelligent conversation, though it be 
what some would call '' worldly," as will increase the 
stock of useful ideas, or prudential rules of conduct, 
the writer thinks it may " minister grace to the hear- 
ers," and ought not to be deplored. Whatever is forced 
is necessarily offensive ; it is but few who possess the 
tact for introducing spiritual conversation into mixed 
companies ; and to have that love which " does not 
behave itself unseemly " is much less frequent than 
many very zealous religionists suppose. The persons 
here censured are always most " profited" when they 
engross most of the conversation, and most censorious 
when by any means this is prevented. Those who are 
best acquainted with Mr. Jenkins will be the most 
easily convinced that it could never be his design to 
lament the absence of such conversation as is here 
condemned. 

On the 1st of February he took his departure from 
Bristol, and his journal contains the following entry : — 

'' February \st. — Few of the days of my life have 
occasioned more feeling than this. The day towards 
which I had anxiously looked arrived, and parents the 
most truly affectionate, sisters and brothers whom I 
loved tenderly and by whom I was equally beloved, 
and friends dear and faithful, must be forsaken for the 
name of the Lord Jesus. Forget the scenes I shall 
not ; describe them I cannot ; for, though I have no 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



41 



occasion to regfret embarkinor in the work of the Lord, 
yet the thoughts of the parting, the shake of the hand, 
word, office, look, give a poignancy to feeling which 
words are too void of expression to tell. Being de- 
tained, my dearest Sarah, part of the mission party,* 
our sisters ]Mary and Susan, with my brother George, 
took coach to Pill, and there got on board the Jamaica : 
but what were our feelings when called to part with 
these last dear relatives ! Lest I should betray my 
ignorance and weakness, I pass the whole over in 
silence. 

" It was the sabbath of the Lord when we took our 
last farewell look of our dear relatives, and the land of 
our birth. It was the pleasure arising from resigna- 
tion, hope, and a consciousness of duty, aided by our 
assurance of the Divine favour and help, that kept us 
from sinking". We thouo^ht of the land we were 
leaving, the employment of its pious inhabitants, the 
calm and joy of the Lord's house and ordinances, con- 
trasted with our situation, engagements, and feelings, 
and the noise and' bustle of the ship's company going 
down the Bristol Channel ; and we retired into our 
cabin, where we poured out our hearts to God, in 
fervent intercessions, for his blessing and assistance. 
He was present to hear and answer, and, probably, for the 
first time, I {elifulli/ the meaning of — ' Neither in this 
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall men worship the 
Father : they that worship him must w^orship him in 
spirit and in truth.' O how cheering was the light of 
his countenance ! Glory be to God my rock ! After 
social prayer, in which we felt much assisted, I wrote 
two or three letters to my friends, informing them of 
our situation on board (which is most comfortable), 
and our latest state of feelino- before the sio-ht of our 
shores is taken for the last time. This work was hur- 
ried, as the pilot intended leaving as we passed the 
Holms, in the Bristol Channel, but the feelings expressed 
were real." 

* This partv consisted of Mr, and Mrs. Whitehouse, Mr. Allen, 
and a Miss Harris, the late wife of the Kev. Mr. Crofts, then a 
Wesleyan missionary in Jamaica. She died in the Bahamas, in 
the month of May, 1829. 

E 2 



42 



A MEMOIR OF 



One of the letters above alluded to was to Mr, 
Jenkins's father, and is as follows: — 

Ship Jamaica^ Bristol Channel^ Feb. \st,, 1824, 

" To our dear Parents, 

" I steal a moment or two to tell you we are 
under weigh, and likely to do well. It is now about 
ten o'clock, and we are not far from the Holms. You 
may be now with the great congregation, where we 
are not forgotten. Bless the Lord, the prayers of his 
people never appeared so valuable, so precious, as at 
the present moment ! The hurry and pangs of parting 
I shall not forget ; but all my cups are strongly impreg- 
nated with mercy. My mind felt, and still feels, support. 
O how can I bless God enough for his goodness to 
such a one as I am ! 

" Let us, my dearest parents, O let us fly to the 
strong hold : let us take pleasure in doing the will of 
the Head of the church ; you in giving up your child- 
ren, and ourselves in going. Be assured of this, I 
am perfectly satisfied I am where God designs me 
to be. 

" My kindest, kindest love, to my dear sisters and 
brothers. Sorry, very sorry, I am, that I had no op- 
portunity of bidding Richard and Lydia farewell ; but 
Providence ordered it so. Bid them farewell for me. 
And O let me beseech you all — yes, all — to meet us 
in heaven. Pray for us ; give us to God ; leave us in 
his hands ; and the God of missionaries will do all that 
is well for us, and for you. Request our sisters to 
give oilr kind love to father and mother, and all the 
family [at Cheddar] : also to all the Goughs, and all 
our friends. 

" Your son John." 

The second and third of February appear to have 
been such days as can only be described by those who 
have been at sea, as they are described in the following 
extract from Mr. Jenkins's Journal: — 

" These were days of considerable sickness and 
danger ; the nights excessively so. Darkness, adverse 
winds, frequent and violent squalls, dreadful tossings, 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



43 



rain, hail, and the dangers of the channel, prevented 
sleep, and occasioned thoughts the most gloomy. 
Great searchings of heart, and frequent, unreserved, 
dedication of life and all to God, in whose salvation I 
felt assuredly interested. — The night of the fourth was 
extremely dreadful, at least to me. The sea frequently 
dashed over us ; the sails were closely reefed ; the 
winds most tempestuous and adverse ; the poor sailors 
all hands at work in the rain and dreadful showers of 
hail ; and the ship drifting towards the coast of Ireland : 
so much so that I was sick almost to death, and forced 
to quit my bed in the middle of the night to seek some 
assistance. But vain are created powers. God was 
my refuge and strength ; and he can bear me record 
that I did not doubt of his mercy and effectually " sav- 
ing power." 

On the fourth of February the captain found it neces- 
sary to put into the Cove of Cork, from which Mr. 
Jenkins wrote his parents as follows: — 

Ship Jamaica^ Cove of Cork, Feb. 4th, 1824. 
" A few minutes spent in conversation with 
our dear parents will afford us the relief our spirits so 
greatly need, after the fatigue, sickness, and danger of 
the days that have intervened between Sunday morning 
and to-day. We will not attempt to describe the 
scenes through which we have passed : suffice it to 
say that we have had to contend with perpetual ad- 
verse gales, till driven to seek shelter from their fury 
in this quiet haven. O, w^hat will heaven at the last 
prove, after we have passed the toils and tossings of 
this world of billows and of fear ! The storm that 
compelled us to take shelter in this place commenced 
its ragings on Sunday afternoon, and we have reason 
to fear continues till now in the open sea, although 
we feel nothing of its force. You may suspect that 
Divine Providence never designed us for the work in 
which we have hazarded our lives ; but we think dif- 
ferently, and in this procedure can see the trial of our 
faith, and have been able to derive additional evidence 
that we are in the way we should go. We hope most 
sincerely and affectionately that you will not distress 



44 



A MEMOIR OF 



yourselves about us. We are happy, — we are safe, — 
all is well. God is with us, and what more can you 
wish ? Love us still, as affectionately as we love you ; 
and pray for us as fervently as we shall ever pray for 
you; and all will be well, in time, and in eternity. 

" Present our kind regards to Mr. and Mrs. James 
Wood ; and our love to our dear sisters and brothers ; and 
" Believe us your affectionate children, 

" John and Sarah Jenkins." 

There is something sufficiently characteristic of 
Irish hospitality in the following account of the recep- 
tion of Mr. J. and the mission party, at the Cove of 
Cork, to supersede the necessity of apology for its in- 
sertion : — 

" We entered the steam-boat at about half-past 
eight o'clock, and proceeded from the ship to land on 
Irish soil. The captain of the boat was a short, thick, 
ruddy man, with large red whiskers, and a phiz which 
indicated that he had seen a great deal, he thought a 
great deal, and he knew a great deal, while his tongue 
was as voluble as a weaver's shuttle is rapid. 

" In a quarter of an hour we landed, and made en- 
quiry for Mr. Kyle the preacher, whose name will be 
registered in my mind among those who permanently 
demand my affection and praise. I had for a con- 
siderable time entertained very high notions of the 
genuine Irish character, for simplicity, sincerity, 
warmth, and hospitality ; ajid this truly excellent man 
most fully established my opinion. He proved that he 
was an Irishman ; and the mode of his receiving my 
dear brethren and sisters, my Sarah and myself, will 
show what I mean about the character of the Irish 
when possessed of real religion. We were in his 
sitting-room at the time it was announced that some 
strangers wished to see him. He made his appear- 
ance, and I introduced the party as Methodist mission- 
aries from England. As I spoke he seized my hand, 
held it between his, his eyes sparkled, and he gave 
vent to his feelings in the most affecting and expressive 
language. ' My dear sisters and brethren' were 
repeated again and again, while he thanked God for 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 45 

the honour of having a visit from missionaries. His 
words and actions alfected us all to tears, and we felt 
in an instant the meaning of the Saviour's words, 
' By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, 
if ye have love one towards another.' At once we 
recognized the features of our Master in his disciple. 
May the great Head of the church make me thankful 
for the least attention from these heirs of the kingdom 
of heaven ! 

" At half-past nine we proceeded up the river to 
Cork. Profitable reflections occupied my mind as I 
listened to the conversations of the passengers, looked 
at the beautiful scenery, walked and read, and con- 
versed with the mission party, and while I could 
abstract my mind from home, and fix it upon the 
Saviour and the work in which I was enQfag-ed, O how 
did I mourn my want of more piety, zeal, and know- 
ledge, while I longed to be wholly engaged in pub- 
lishing to the heathen the unsearchable riches of 
Christ! On board we were providentially introduced 
to a young lady, who apparently belonged to the 
family of God. By Miss Woods we were introduced 
to the house of the Rev. Mack Mullen, who bears the 
stamp of a primitive Methodist preacher. Soon after 
we were led to the house of Colonel Hall in Patrick 
Street, whose very amiable, deeply pious, and affec- 
tionate family, treated us with more than hospitality. 
Never, while I am capable of recollection, shall I 
forget the Christian, handsome, fatherly, friendly, 
treatment we all received in that house. Every thing 
that could make us happy was most readily provided 
us. I often weep when I remember them all ; and, as 
I repeat their names, pray my heavenly Father for the 
greatest of his blessings upon them. We spent the 
Lord's-day at Cork. Brother Whitehouse preached 
in the morning, brother Allen in the afternoon, and I 
in the evening. The congregations were good, the 
people were attentive ; and, by the very large attend- 
ance at the prayer-meeting, I may hope good was 
done. During the intervals of service my dear Sarah 
and I attended the class-meetings ; and, if from a 
single visit we may judge of them, the Methodists of 



46 



A MEMOIR OF 



Cork are acquainted with the deep things of God. 
Indeed, I felt ashamed before the Lord while I at- 
tempted to give advice to them. The kind and pious 
solicitude of the members of the society is certainly in 
my recollection without a parallel. Messrs. Tobias 
and Matthews were the Methodist preachers, of whose 
affection, piety, qualifications for usefulness, and efforts 
for our happiness, it is impossible for me to speak too 
highly ; and, in parting with the friends who loved us 
for our Master's sake, I felt as one leaving an almost 
necessary source of happiness. But the following 
words are encouraging : — 

' There we shall meet again, 

When all our toils are o'er, 
And death, and grief, and pain, 

And parting are no more ; 
We shall with all our brethren rise, 
And grasp them in the flaming skies.' 

I should like to write much more of the kindness we 
received during our stay in Ireland, but words are not 
capable of telling what I mean. Three times we 
visited Cork, and each time gave additional proofs of 
the affection of the friends found there." 

On the 14th of February the ship left the Cove of 
Cork ; and of their departure he writes as follows : — 

" About half past three, P.M., we began to recede 
from the Irish coast, the wind tolerably favourable but 
boisterous ; however, we expected to be able to make 
considerable sail. It seems a disadvantage that skilful 
captains have not the management of their own 
vessels, and that they are to give up the direction of 
their ships to a person who deems himself competent 
to direct. The very great disadvantage of this we 
felt on the present occasion. The pilot, when he 
entered our ship, was evidently intoxicated, as well as 
the persons who had the management of his boat, for 
which wickedness they had well nigh paid'dearly ; for 
just as we were clearing the points of the harbour, 
though we were carrying very little sail, through the 
drunken imprudence of the men in the boat, they ran 
against our starboard quarter and were instantly 



THE REV. JOHN' JENKINS. 



47 



overwhelmed, the boat turning from under them 
through the agitation of the water, occasioned by the 
swiftness of our going. The men of course w^ere at 
the mercy of the waves, which swelled tolerably high, 
on account of the narrowness of the passage : but, 
providentiallv for them, the boat with bottom upwards 
appeared, and they sat upon it. At this moment I saw 
them a Grain, for I had retired to mv cabin in extreme 
agitation on their being upset, considering it hardly 
possible that they should escape death in the dreadfully 
unprepared state in which they evidently were. Our 
boat was lowered from the ship with all possible speed, 
but I am quite unable to describe our feelings as it left 
us in so much evident danger, and especially when it 
drew near the boat on which the men were, for it 
appeared to us that all would be lost. Previous to 
this, in haste, I called the mission party into my cabin, 
where we cried mightily to God for the salvation of 
these poor creatures, and we have reason to hope that 
our cries were regarded. After prayer I felt much 
more calm, and was confident the Lord would spare 
them. The earnestness I felt in prayer for them, the 
access I had to the throne of God, and the faith I 
felt in his great power and nearness, were the reasons 
why I rested in the assurance that they would be 
saved. But just as our boat reached them we per- 
ceived that one of the men disappeared, having been 
washed from his hold. However, in a few moments 
he again rose, and was taken, by means of an oar 
reached out to him, on board our boat. After they got 
on board with us, I endeavoured to impress upon them 
the necessity of turning to God by repentance, lest he 
should one day give them up to a sudden destruction. 
After the pilot left us we continued making all possible 
sail, and about eleven o'clock, P. M., lost sight of the 
light-house off" Waterford that first attracted our atten- 
tion when near land, and was now the last object to 
be seen as connected with the British Isles. 

" Associating with it the many dear friends we 
were leaving —the land with all its blessed privileges 
from which we had consented to go — the dangers of 
the situation in which we were then placed — the land 



48 



A MEMOIR OF 



towards which we were hastening-, its untried climate, 
and the views of its inhabitants — the truly great and 
awful work in which I was engaged — my respon- 
sibility to the missionary committee, to the Methodist 
body, and above all to the great Head of the church — 
the labours and toils of a missionary — the natural 
weakness of my system — my proneness to gloom — the 
situation of my dearest Sarah, shouM I leave her in a 
land of strangers — my unparalleled unfitness for the 
employment of an ambassador to the heathen, through 
the want of piety, zeal, and knowledge ; together with 
the very, very great probabiHty I shall fall in the field 
of toil ; — all these thoughts, associated with a last look 
at a distant light-house, tended to excite the falling 
tear, and to lead me afresh to Him in whose work I 
was engaged. Connected with this was the darkness 
of the night ; only a star or two appeared in the 
whole heavens, and these were only seen at intervals ; 
for the dense clouds rolled their blackened columns 
along, and intimated that the storm was beginning to 
awake from its slumbers. The world, save its watery 
part, was completely out of sight : the wind's current, 
intercepted by the ropes, made a dismal hiding ; the 
waves heaved our vessel as though it had been a cork 
on their surface ; and themselves rolled along in high 
and rapid succession : the dense clouds, as the hiding- 
place of gloom and anger, threatened us with tempest 
and storm. Only a person situated as I then was can 
form any conception of the state of my mind : it was 
powerfully affected, and I went into my cabin to give 
myself afresh to my great High Priest, and to seek at 
least bodily relief in sleep. The night was stormy and 
adverse, and I wept when I heard the rain, hail, and 
wind, and while thinking of the privations of the men 
on deck and the mercies I enjoyed in having a shelter 
from its peltings. During the night I was again 
visited with sea-sickness, with all its train of awful 
sensations ; and my Sarah also had a relapse, from 
which she suffered exceedingly. But there is a land 
where ' there is no more curse,' and I hope to be 
found there at the last. 

" The sea-sickness, so greatly increased by the 



THE REV. JOHN JEXKIXS. 



4g 



roughness of a winter's passage, together with the 
extra duty and exertion required of the men during 
such weather, prevented the possibility of their having 
service on board, even on the Sabbath ; and the inde- 
scribable monotony of such a life afforded Mr. Jenkins 
no materials for such detail as would interest the gene- 
rality of readers until the 1st of INIarch. And indeed 
the following extracts, commencing with that date, do 
little more than show of how little variation the life of 
a missionary is capable under such circumstances : 
how limited his foreign resources, when the varying 
clouds, the flying-fish, and the dying dolphin, are re- 
garded as sufficiently interesting to be the subjects most 
worthy of nan'ation, and the few souls on board a ship 
the only objects of his pious solicitude ! 

" The week has passed away, and the occurrences of 
it were mere common-place. The same work, feelings, 
prospects, &c., &c., now engage our attention, and 
the different appearances are viewed with minuteness 
and interest. A change in the appearance of the 
clouds, that would be passed over on shore without 
concern or even without notice, now catches our atten- 
tion, and furnishes matter for conversation not always 
the most unprofitable ; for frequently, when the storm 
has driven me from the deck, I have retired singing, 

* The God that rules on high, 

That all the earth surveys, 
That rides upon the stormy sky, 

And calms the roaring seas; 

This awful God is ours^ 

Our Father and our love, 
He vrill send down his heavenly powers, 

To carry us above ; ' 

and I have felt the meaning of ' He that dwelleth in 
the secret place of the 'Most High shall abide under the 
shadow of the Ahnighty.' Sure have I found the 
dwelling-place, and transporting the abiding. 

" During the week I have had frequent conversation 
with the crew, and find them not only civil, but very 
attentive and willing to hear. A present of New 
Testaments, made by the Cork Bible Society, through 
its secretary the Rev. Mr. Sweete, for them, I distri- 

F 



50 



A MEMOIR OF 



buted, and others from our own stock (so that eacli 
might have the word of life), and for them they 
evinced considerable gratitude, and more than once 
expressed hope that we shall have Divine service 
every Sabbath while on board. I hope the Lord will 
make us useful to them. We have had frequent and 
heavy squalls, so that we have made but little way. 

" We hoped that on the morning of Lord's day 
we should be able to call the ship's company together 
for divine service ; but in this we were disappointed, 
no doubt in mercy ; though it is one of those things 
which we ' shall know hereafter.' In the evenings 
although the vessel tossed exceedingly, I read prayers, 
and brother Allen preached to the ship's company in 
our dining cabin. I felt it good to draw nigh to God, 
and hope the exercises will be of considerable service to 
all present. Our very excellent captain, of whom I 
cannot speak too highly as a governor of a ship's com- 
pany, a gentleman, or a friend, evinced more than a 
cold interest in the service. Having considerable relish 
for the things of God, he feels most solicitous for the 
good of his men, and this he showed in the most 
unequivocal way. May my great Master bless him 
and his dear wife and children with piety and eternal 
life! 

2d. This morning, after family prayer, I met the 
mission party, for the purpose of enquiring particularly 
into the state of each other's minds. We had fre- 
quently done this before when we were not able to sit 
together, and were the subjects of pain and sickness. 
But this had not enough of the appearance of a church 
to satisfy me, or indeed any of us. Our hearts were 
melted into much tenderness before the Lord, who was 
evidently in the midst of us. We all felt encouraged 
to go forward with increased purpose of mind to the 
heavenly world, and to seek a greater meetness for 
our holy and divine employment. 

" 5th. This evening we met at the table to com- 
memorate the last supper of the Lord. To me, and I 
believe to all the mission party, it was a time of great 
humiliation and melting in the divine presence. Many 
circumstances united to induce these feelings. We 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



51 



were on the mighty deep, far from the ' general 
assembly' of the Redeemer's people. It was the first 
time of our meeting together for this exercise, and we 
were sailing together as ambassadors to the heathen. 
Who can describe om- feelings when we thought of the 
time when we shall eat the supper of the Lord with a 
people raised up by our instrumentality to his holy 
name I I gave myself afresh to the God of my 
mercies, and I am resolved to glory in nothing save in 
the cross of Jesus Christ. I want to spend every day 
on board to the glory of God, in such a way that after 
landing I may not regret the way in which I have 
spent my hours. 

" 6th. Upon a review of the week I feel occasion 
for thankfulness and regret. Thankfulness that my 
dear Sarah, the mission party, and myself, are now 
pretty well recovered — that my Sarah increases in 
piety, and has never let slip the faintest sound of re- 
gret for having engaged with me in my important 
work — and that the mercy of God is still towards us, 
while I hope we are growing in the knowledge and 
love of God. I have reason for regret that, though I 
strive to be useful among the passengers and crew, yet 
I see little evidence of real spiritual good — that I do 
not grow in holiness and knowledge as I ought to 
grow — and that I am still unfit for my great and holy 
work. Yet I strive, and am determined to do so, till 
I am perfected in God. I often sing with much 
feeling, 

Jesu, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly/ &cc. 

This evening was spent in singing on the quarter-deck. 
The air was mild and calm ; the sun had disappeared, 
and had tinged the clouds, and the surface of the un- 
dulating and widely-spreading waters, with various 
hues ; the stars, one by one, began their twinklings 
above us : the ship, under a full press of canvass, was 
gliding majestically and swiftly along. Night was 
hastening ; my heart and the heart of my Sarah 
seemed happy in the God of our salvation, and ' we 



I 



52 



A MEMOIR OF 



forgot all time and toil and care,' while singing the 
hymn the first verse of which is, 

* G od moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform ; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 

And rides upon the storm/ 

" The atmosphere in these latitudes is exceedingly 
lucid ; at least it surpasses the atmosphere with which 
I am most familiar. I have observed this most at the 
rising and setting of the sun. The appearance of the 
moon and stars, and the distinctness with which every 
object is seen, afford additional proofs of this pureness 
of the air. Just before the rising of the sun a beauti- 
ful transparent grey skirts the eastern horizon (and to 
a considerable height tinges the sky) which increases 
more and more with great rapidity till it breaks into 
open day. The few minutes which precede the ap- 
pearance of the sun are most brilliant ; a highly bur- 
nished golden tinge spreads itself along the sky, the 
clouds mutually participating and aiding in the glory 
of his rise. Upward shoot the lightsome beams. 
[They frequently reflect different coloured rays, some- 
thing like an expiring rainbow, but originate in a 
centre, and expand through the vault of heaven ; and 
the writer has sometimes seen the same appearance 
reflected from the opposite horizon, and the rays 
meeting in the zenith.] " Its setting is equally 
beautiful. But description is poor when the subject is 
the sublime. Never did my mind talk with Milton, 
Thomson, &c., with more real feeling and perception of 
their beauties than now, and never did I more ardently 
wonder at and adore the God of nature and grace » 
I find we have made but little way these two days. 
We are at present about 26^ 5' N. lat., and 29° 59' 
W. Ion. 

" 8th. I have spent another Lord's-day on board a 
ship, but not far from the temple of my God. O how 
do I now exult in the fact that the religion of my 
almighty Redeemer is a spiritual religion ! * He 
dwelleth not in temples made with hands,' is a blessed- 
ness I would not part with for the world. The wea- 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



53 



ther was favourable : the awning was spread over the 
quarter-deck ; seats were placed for the passengers 
and crew ; and all was quietness and solemnity, while 
I read the church service and brother Whitehouse 
preached. Good, I hope, was done : and, if solemnity 
of demeanour and fixedness of attention are proofs, we 
have seen them. In the evening I addressed the same 
company on, ' Will ye also be his disciples ?' The 
Saviour was present, and several were affected. O 
that the good of the day may be lasting as eternity I 

" 10th. To-day I saw the singular flying-hsh, which 
has considerably interested my attention, but has yet 
eluded my closer inspection. From what I could see 
from the deck of the ship the body of the fish is 
about the size of a herring, but the head on the top 
seems flat. The wings are tolerably long, measuring 
from their extremities more than its lena-th. In the 
sun they have a silveiy appearance, and do not very 
much differ from the martin in England. They do 
not mount high, not I suppose above two or three 
yards from the surface of the water. Their flight is 
tolerably rapid, and when pursued by the porpoise, or 
their most decided enemy the dolphin, thev flv in 
shoals. How wonderful are the works of God I How 
far beyond the judgment of man ! But in wisdom has 
he made them all. 

12th. This morning, after family prayer, we met 
for pious conversation, and I was pleased to remark 
more spirituality than usual. In the evening we met 
again at the table of the Lord, and found it exceed- 
ingly profitable. It was with me a time of great 
searching of heart and of earnest prayer. Our 
captain, of whom I entertain a good opinion, joined 
with us. It was good to be there : the Redeemer 
was powerfully present, and my mind was very much 
engaged with God. O how pleasant to be able to 
engage in holy devotedness to the Lord in the midst of 
the great deep ! I find these ordinances produce the 

most salutary and lasting effect on my heart. 

* * * 

18th. This morning, by a hook from the stern of 
the ship, we caught a tolerably good sized dolphin, 
F 2 



54 



A MEMOIR or 



which surpasses in beauty every fish I have seen. The 
number of beautiful purple spots that cover its back, 
the fine silver of its belly, and the frequent and rapid 
chariges of its colour v^rhile dying, were truly striking, 
I could not avoid feeling pleased witlp its beauty, 
while I pitied the fish» We had a part of it for din- 
ner, and found in it, as in most things that are pretty, 
that goodness was not one of its qualities. 

The following is the description of the dying dolphin 
by the lamented Falconer, in his poem entitled The 
Shipwreck — 

* And now, approaching near the lofty stern, 
A shoal of sportive dolphins they discern. 
From humish'd scales they beam refulgent rays, 
Till all the glowing ocean seems to blaze. 
Soon to the sport of death the crew repair, 
Dart the long lance, or spread the baited snare. 
One in redoubling mazes wheels along, 
And glides, unhappy ! near the triple prong. 
Rodmond, unerring, o'er his head suspends 
The barbed steel, and every turn attends ; 
Unerring aim'd, the missile weapon flew. 
And, plunging, struck the fated victim through. 
Th' upturning points his ponderous bulk sustain- 
On deck he struggles with convulsive pain. 
But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, 
And flitting life escapes in sanguine rills. 
What radiant changes strike th' astoni&hed sight • 
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light ! 
Not equal beauties gild the lucid west. 
With parting beams all o'er profusely dress 'd. 
Not lovelier colours paint the vernal dawn, 
When orient dews impeari the enamell'd lawn, 
Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow. 
That now with gold empyreal seem to glow — 
Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view. 
And emulate the soft celestial hue — 
Now beam a flaming crimson on the eye — 
And now assume the purple's deeper dye : 
But here description clouds each shining ray — 
What terms of Art can Nature's powers display f 

" 20th. I am now twenty-six years of age, and all 1 
can say of myself is, ' few and evil have been the days 
of my life.' But of the God of my life I know not 
what to say. ' Not one good thing of all the good 
things which the Lord hath promised hath failed.^ 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



55 



' Bless the Lord, O my soul I ' He shall be my guide 
even unto death. I am just about to enter a fresh 
field of labour as a missionary to the heathen. O how 
do I tremble while I think of my pledges to the 
Redeemer and his church, and of my very great unfit- 
ness for my high and holy calling ! How shall I feel 
when I look back upon this year, if I spend the whole 
of it in his vineyard ? What good shall I be the 
instrument of doing ? What degree of holiness shall 
I attain 1 What confidence in providence ? I have 
reason to mistrust myself, and will fly to God for help. 
Help me ! help me ! 

" We have had a tolerably good wind, and are 
anxiously looking out for land, and expect to see it in 
the morning. Our health is better, although obliged 
to take medicine almost every day to counteract the 
influence of the change of climate. 

" 22d. The Lord's holy day has again passed and 
we are yet on the mighty deep, and the day was not 
spent so profitably as some of the former. In the 
morning about five o'clock I had a sight of land, 
which was indeed most truly gratifying, as five weeks 
have passed away without any material change of 
scenery. The eastern promontory of Antigua was 
first visible over our starboard bow, and appeared as a 
darkish cloud reaching from the horizon to an incon- 
siderable height. Guadaloupe at the same time was 
visible on our larboard side, and Montserrat directly 
a head. My attention was fixed, and my desire of 
seeing objects distinctly very great ; nor could I go 
below% lest some omen of a near approach to land 
should escape. About seven o'clock the rock Rodundo 
appeared between Nevis and Montserrat. Between 
eight and nine o'clock we were abreast of Antigua, 
and probably, just when our people there were going 
to the house of God, our ship was telegraphing with 
the fort of St. John's, not more than eight miles from 
the shore. Had the brethren known that we were so 
near to them, probably we should have been able to 
exchange some tokens of friendship which would have 
been acceptable to us. About eleven o'clock we 
cleared Antigua, were not far from Montserrat, and 



56 



A MEMOIR OF 



could discern Nevis and St. Kitt's. We had intended 
to run close to the point of St. Kitt's, where the town 
stands, but the wind would not allow us, so that we 
saw little of the island. We had a very fine breeze 
the whole day, so that, by the time the sable goddess 
gained the ascendency, we had nearly lost sight of 
land, which led to many strange feelings, a mixture of 
hope, pleasure, anxiety, and disappointment. 

" It was the Sabbath, and the atmosphere was mild, 
and brother Allen, my Sarah, and myself, while sitting 
on deck, sang that beautiful hymn by Kirke White, 
* The Star of Bethlehem:' But the day had not been 
spent as I like the day of God to be spent, in the 
ordinances of the Lord ; for, in consequence of the 
frequent shifting of the sails, the men were all en- 
gaged. Yet our family worship was not neglected ; 
in which we thanked God for his incessant help and 
took courage. 

The appearances of the islands were certainly 
interesting, as they constantly changed their aspects as 
we approached or passed them. The most interesting 
was Montserrat, which seemed composed of huge 
mountains, the height of which is beautifully, though 
unintentionally, described by Goldsmith in his ' De- 
serted Village' — ' Like some tall rock,' &c. This 
morning all is sea and sky again ; but if the wind con- 
tinue we hope to see St. Domingo to-morrow. We 
are all in good spirits, and long to be at the end of our 
voyage. 

" 23d. This morning, about six o'clock, we had a 
view of the western point of St. Domingo ; and, as 
the wind is fair and tolerably strong, we have the 
prospect of escaping the calms so frequent off its high 
lands. We can see but little of the island in conse- 
quence of the distance ; but the consciousness of being 
near land is very agreeable. 

" 24th. Yesterday afternoon having to pass the 
watery hypothenuse of a triangle, formed by the land 
of St. Domingo, we bore away for the western point 
of the island ; and early this morning, through the 
apparent inattention of the watch, we were almost 
ashore before our danger was discovered. However, 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



57 



the timely appearance of the captain soon put us out 
of danger of being wrecked, which would most 
likely have been the case had there been a fog, or had 
it happened in the middle of the night. ' The very 
hairs of your head are all numbered.' We are all 
alive, expecting to see Jamaica to-morrow. 

25th. Light winds till about four P. M., keeping 
our minds doubtful whether we shall see land to-day. 
How strangely does my mind now feel ! How many 
its fears, hopes, desires ! What reception shall I meet 
with ? Where shall I be stationed ? What plan shall 
I adopt to afford instruction ? Shall either my dear 
Sarah or myself fall a sacrifice to the climate ? What 
maimers must I forget, what acquire ? Can the Lord 
make me useful? &c. &c. These, and many similar 
enquiries, press upon my heart with such insupportable 
weight that I almost despair of doing any thing, and I 
am for being any where but in my present and pro- 
spective situation. Here, however, I find the advantage 
of having a High Priest over the house of God ; and I 
hear him say, not in the language of displeasure, 
hardly of reproof, ' O thou of little faith, wherefore 
dost thou doubt?' I then check these feelings and 
sing, 

• Blind unbelief is sure to err,' &c. 

Sun-set. Jamaica in sight ; and how shall I de- 
scribe my emotions ! Thousands of miles from the 
blessed land of my birth — from my dearest parents, 
sisters, brothers, friends. Just about to try an un- 
known climate and people, to find new associates, if 
the Master spare me, and struggle with untried diffi- 
culties. Yet, in all this, how good is the God of provi- 
dence to me in giving me my dearest Sarah, to assist 
I me by her resignation to be resigned, by her faith to 
I believe, by her zeal and devotedness to labour with 
all my powers, by her love to God and me to love 
both more fully ! O that I may never be so faithless 
to my Lord as to force him to take from me this best 
of earthly gifts, who is all the world to me when the 



58 



A MEMOIR OF 



whole world is excluded ! — The land is at present 
scarcely discernible, only the Blue Mountains, which 
are seen at a very great distance, and night is ap- 
proaching. I retired to thank God for his help, and 
afresh to trust in him ; as well as to ask his assistance 
to do the work of an evangelist. 

" 26th. A day to be remembered to eternity ; a day 
of fear and great searchings of heart ; a day of hope 
and of confidence. I am determined to spend my life 
for the salvation of souls. Lord help me ! Keep me 
from gloom and indolence, and from departing from 
thy ways, that I may not grieve thee and thy church. — 
At day-break could see Jamaica. My heart over- 
flowed, and spoke in tears. Every object, as revealed 
by the increase of the day, was pleasing and interesting. 
The hills, the plantations, the trees, the houses, in a 
word, the whole country, was interesting. About nine 
o'clock the pilot came on board, and, as he was the 
first Negro I had seen in these parts, I felt an unusual 
degree of what I call contiguous attachment to him. 
We passed along the coast for a few miles, and could 
distinctly see the objects on shore. Between nine and 
ten o'clock we were at anchor, in Morant-Bay, and 
my heart overflowed with praise to my Great De- 
liverer, whose providence had helped me so long and 
so well, and had helped me to the end of our long, and, 
in some degree, perilous voyage. As soon as things 
could be got ready, our kind captain had his boat pre- 
pared to take me on shore ; so that, in a few minutes, 
I was landed ; while sensations, the most strangely 
rapid, thrilled through my whole soul. O what I felt 
the first moment my feet touched the shore ! Recol- 
lected feeling was suspended ; it was too powerful for 
a moment or two ; and all I can say is, I felt — I know 
not what. Mr. Horne" [the resident Wesleyan mis- 
sionary] " was at another part of his circuit, and I re- 
turned to my Sarah and companions to inform them of 
the accommodations provided for them. We again 
dined on board, and then all of us proceeded on shore. 
Immediately as we landed, we began to experience the 
kind brotherly feeling of Christian ministers in this 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



59 



land: the Rev. Mr. Trew, the church clergyman, was 
waiting with his chaise to drive the females of our 
party to the ]VIission-house. 

" 27th. How shall I express my gratitude to the 
Father of spirits for his goodness to me, my Sarah, and 
the mission party ! I looked round upon them with 
pleasure, and with unspeakable thankfulness, that we 
are all alive and in tolerable health ; and brother Allen, 
who on the voyage has been so long ill, now looks 
cheerful and w^ell. ' It is the Lord's doing, and it is 
marvellous in our eyes.' We all sat together at the 
breakfast- table, and it was a gratifying sight, the plea- 
sure of which was heightened by the gratitude which 
beamed in every face, and the cheerfulness that rolled 
in every word. The dangers we had escaped, the 
hopes w^e entertained, and the resolutions we had 
formed, were the subjects of our first conversations ; 
the whole rendered peculiarly interesting by the know- 
ledge that they were personal and sincere. Just before 
we had finished breakfast iVIr. Horne arrived, and ex- 
pressed his great thankfulness for our safety, and his 
sorrow that our party was so small : as they need much 
assistance in various parts of the island which cannot 
be afforded them. Mr. Horne obtained leave of the 
magistrates for us to preach in the chapel on the fol- 
lowing morning. 

" 28th. Brother Allen preached and felt much dis- 
couraged. In the evening the Lord opened my mouth, 
and the day, on the whole, was profitable. I felt 
melted before the Head of the Church that he had 
'* counted me worthy" to bear the message of mercy 
to this land. 

" 29th. This day I rode with Mr^ Horne to a sugar 
estate belongrinor to Sir Georg-e Rose, and was ex- 
ceedingly gratified at what I saw and heard. The 
children answered wnth great readiness and correctness 
the questions proposed to them. The scenery is truly 
majestic, more so than any I have yet witnessed in 
any parts I have before visited. I saw the process of 
sugar and rum- making, which is exceedingly simple 
and rapid. The overseer was affectionate and at- 
tentive : after dining with him, we returned. Twenty 



60 



A MEMOIR OF 



miles^ travelling in Jamaica, in the heat of the day, is 
more fatiguing, I think, than forty in England. I be- 
gin already to feel a little of the lassitude induced by 
the climate. 

We (the mission party) visited the burying-ground 
in this place, where so many of the Lord's servants 
have fallen ; and, w^hile looking at their tombs, I w^as 
most povi^erfully affected by the thoughts which as- 
sociated themselves with the spot, — the men, — their 
labours, — the country they left, — their friends, — the 
resurrection of the just, — my own departure from this 
life, probably in this place, and succeeding missionaries 
making enquiries respecting m?/ person, character, age, 
usefulness, piety, &c., and dropping the tear, the tri- 
bute o{ brotherly affection ; and taking courage. — 
Well, let me live by the faith of the Son of God, be 
the instrument of saving souls, and die in the faith, and 
I shall be satisfied.'' 

It was singularly unhappy that this party should 
have gone out in a vessel bound for Morant-Bay ; for 
such is the want of suitable conveyances abroad, and 
the impossibility of travelling without them in tropical 
climates, that, to prevent an early hazard of health 
and life, missionaries should always be sent, not only 
to the island or colony where they are destined to 
labour, but, if possible, to the very town where they 
will receive their stations. Mr. Jenkins and his com- 
panions had soon to commence a voyage to Kingston, 
the principal town in the island, under circumstances 
which must have greatly affected the comfort, and 
hazarded the health of all ; and appears, indeed, to 
have been the proximate cause of the death of one of 
the party. The following is Mr. Jenkins's account of 
their voyage :— 

" April 3c?.— About eleven o'clock, A. M., we took 
leave of our very kind friends on the beach of Morant- 
Bay, and got on board a small coasting-sloop that was 
going to Kingston. Scores of people were collected 
to wish us God speed, and to assure us that they were 
interested in our happiness. We soon found ourselves 
in a situation not to be forgotten by us, and not to be 
easily described. The vessel was not larger than a 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



61 



good ship's long-boat, and the hold was filled with 
sugars, coffee, rum, &c. ; so that we had but a very 
small portion of the deck to sit upon — so small, indeedj 
that we were completely huddled together ; and such 
a steam arose from the sugars and the bilge-water as, 
when it came from the hatch- ways, nearly suffocated 
us. The almost direct rays of the sun assisted to 
make the whole not only painful in the extreme, but 
equally dangerous. About one o'clock the wind died 
away, and we had almost a perfect calm, so that we 
had nothing to cool us, or render the intense heat 
tolerable. The thermometer stood regularly at 109 
degrees. Our kind friends had provided us with a 
little wine, salt-fish, bread, water, and beer ; but the 
water, which was most agreeable, soon got so ex- 
ceedingly hot that it grew insipid ; and the bread and 
fish, to persons whose saliva, by the heat, was reduced 
almost to the consistency of birdlime, were not at all 
agreeable. In this situation we were until night began 
to approach, and there appeared no probability of get- 
ting to Kingston until the next night. I was alarmed 
for the females in particular, as I concluded the damp 
would inevitably kill them ; especially as, from the 
heat during the day, the blood seemed to have boiled 
within us. I prevailed, however, upon the Captain to 
try for the shore : he did so ; and, after being out 
seven hours, we put into St. David's, only about 
eleven miles from Morant-Bay. We have a society in 
this place, and Mrs. Horne and family were staying 
there. We were kindly received by them, and spent 
the night with as much comfort as we could expect, 
considering the swarms of musquitoes, and the smart- 
ing of burnt faces, hands, &c. 

4th. This morning, after breakfasting with Mr. 
and Mrs. Horne, we got on board, at seven o'clock, to 
finish our voyage (about fourteen miles), but found 
ourselves in a worse condition than the preceding day. 
In addition to the usual sources of misery, our bodies 
were suffering from the burning of yesterday ; the 
wind was locked up in its store-houses, and the sun 
darting its intense heat upon us still hotter than the 
preceding day. The glass varied from 110 to 120 

G 



62 



A MEMOIR OF 



degrees ; the perspiration ran from every pore ; our 
faces, hands, and feet, were blistered ; and in this way 
we remained for thirteen hours ; when, at last, thank 
God, we set our feet on the quay of Kingston. I 
sent to apprize the preachers of our arrival, and we 
were received by all as angels from heaven. We 
were conveyed to the preacher's house (Mr. Ship- 
man's), and, after mutual interchanges of affectionate 
expressions, we ' thanked God, and took courage.' 

" 6th. We find ourselves in Kingston, in strange 
circumstances. Here toleration is scarcely known, and 
we are not allowed to open our mouths in public. 
We are obliged to wait the Quarter- Sessions, to take 
the oaths, and receive licenses. The heat is almost in- 
sufferable, in consequence of the lowness of the place 
on which the town is built ; and we witness the variety 
of country, colour, dress, manners, condition, &c. &c., 
which here show themselves to perfection. Yesterday 
we attended the chapels, and such a show of colour and 
finery I never before witnessed. The people, of course, 
were all in their best : whites, browns, blacks, with 
all the intervening shades, to which they pay the most 
scrupulous attention — all gay, all light, all airy. One 
of the chapels is a plain building, such as I love, built 
only for convenience, and will hold about 1500 people ; 
the other, a fine, elegant place, exceeding any Method- 
ist chapel I have seen in England, will hold 3000 
persons. Both of these are well filled every Lord's 
day. 

Yesterday, about three o'clock, brother Allen was 
taken ill of an old complaint, which, no doubt, was 
brought on by the voyage from Morant-Bay." 

The above is an extract from Mr. Jenkins's journal, 
transmitted in a letter to his brother Richard ; and he 
adds, 

" Since the above note in the journal, he has passed 
into the world of spirits, and his body lies in the chapel- 
ground near Kingston. During the whole of his illness 
he persisted in the idea that he should die : indeed, he 
had fixed it so deeply in his mind that the doctor fre- 
quently told him he destroyed the effect of his medi- 
cines, and baffled all his skill. So deep was the gloom 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



63 



on his mind that all we could say or do was insufficient 
to arouse him. I had no apprehension of his death ; 
and, having" obtained license at Spanish- Town, for 
Gratefiil-Hill, I was forced to leave him, as the day- 
following (Good-Friday) I had to preach. On the 
Saturday morning he died, and I saw him no more; 
but he, in dying, triumphed gloriously. All about him 
stood convicted, overpowered, and alarmed, and were 
forced to ' glorify God in him.' He had long been in 
a very gloomy state of mind, and more particularly 
during the first days of his illness ; and he frequently 
gave me particular directions about his effects ; but at 
last his soul rose above the whole, and seemed to 
struggle hard for liberty. He would sing, 

''Arise, my soul, arise!" &c., 

with strength and correctness, when dying. Just before 
his death he had a long, dark, dreadful struggle ; and, 
as he was coming off conqueror, he cried out, ' God 
did not send me to this country to labour, but to praise 
Him,' He soon afterwards began to sink very fast; 
and, just with the last effort of his lips, already tremu- 
lous with the touch of death, he cried out, weaker and 
weaker, till only the motion could be observed, ' Praise ! 
praise ! praise!' and for ever sunk to rest." 

On the feelings of Mr. Jenkins, on hearing of the 
death of Mr. Allen, the Rev. Mr. Shipman, chairman 
of the Jamaica district at the time, writes as follows to 
the writer of this memoir That he (Mr. J.) had 
a heart peculiarly formed for friendship himself, will 
appear from a copy of a note I received from him on 
the death of that young missionary, Henry Allen, who 
was the ship-companion of Messrs. Jenkins and White- 
house to Jamaica, and who died, and was buried, that 
day three weeks he landed. The newly arrived part 
of our mission family were all together in Kingston 
when Mr. Allen was taken ill, and fearing lest these 
brethren, and their wives, and the late Mrs. Crofts 
(who had accompanied them), should also fall a sacri- 
fice to the climate, we hastened them away ; Mr. and 
Mrs. Jenkins to Grateful-Hill, a mountainous, woody, 
and cool situation, twenty-five miles from Kingston ; 



64 



A MEMOIR OF 



and therefore he did not know of the death of brother 
Allen. Having, however, heard a report of it, he 
wrote me as follows :— 

Grateful 'Hill, April Wth, 1824. 

" My dear brother, 

" You expect I have heard the melancholy 
tidings of the death of my dear Allen. I feel his loss, 
because the number of my sincere friends is lessened, 
and lessened where friendship is so valuable. I will 
cherish his memory, and repeat his name, in my 
woody solitude,-— and yet I will not wish him back 
from the heaven to which he has flown, but will re- 
joice in the assurance that he is well and happy. His 
love to me was that of a friend whose services, thoughts, 
and feelings, were at my command. While I live in 
Jamaica, I will visit the spot where lies the remnant 
of one who was incapable even of roughness, or of know- 
ingly inducing distress. 

" We are all well ; we are happy ; and hope to be 
useful. 

" Yours, &c., 

John Jenkins." 

The above is only an extract from Mr. Jenkins's 
note on occasion of the death of this amiable young 
man, who appears, however, to have been a very im- 
proper subject for such a station. No one who has 
not witnessed or experienced it can be aware how much 
depends, in such a climate, and in such a situation, on 
the most perfect self-possession, and tranquillity of 
mind. A tendency to gloom is particularly objec- 
tionable ; for, in general, it is occasioned by some 
physical predisposition to a class of maladies which are 
sure to be greatly aggravated on such a station ; and, 
if not, it predisposes to those which are periodically 
prevalent, and counteracts the curative efficacy of the 
most approved remedies. This appears to have been 
the case with Mr. Allen. His gloom was probably 
the mere effect of some physical predisposition to a 
disorder which was too easily brought into deadly ac- 
tivity by the first untoward event of his new situation ; 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



65 



and, in three weeks, he was no more ! The elder 
missionaries, after a little intercourse with a group 
which has newly arrived, will almost invariably pro- 
ceed to prophesy as to the probability of their longevity ; 
and it is astonishing how generally correct are their 
predictions. Happy is the man, however, and happy 
only he, who visits such a climate prepared for every 
event ; and, consequently, for affording his surviving 
brethren the opportunity of bearing such a testimony, 
in reference to him, as is borne by the Rev. Mr. 
Shipman in reference to Mr. Allen, in the following 
extract from his letter above alluded to : — 

" The death-bed of Henry Allen was one of the 
most affecting scenes I ever witnessed. The morning 
on which he died, when the glaze of death was on his 
eyes, and the dark yellow tinge diffused over his body, 
and he was wathin an hour or so of breathing his last, 
he made signs to Messrs. Young, Binning, myself, and 
Mrs. Shipman, who were by his bed, to sing. We 
sang that beautiful hymn, 

' Arise, mj soul, arise, 
Shake off thv ^ilty fears,' 6tc. 

At the commencement he made signs for some one to 
wet his lips, which being done by Mrs. S., he instantly 
struck in the bass, and, dying as he was, he continued 
singing and waving his hand to the end of the hymn, 
and, shortly afterwards, he expired. Such is the ra- 
pidity of decomposition in such cases that it was neces- 
sary to bury him as soon as possible, and his remains 
were interred that evening, before tea-time, in the 
presence of a vast concourse of people, and his death 
was improved the next day.'' 



66 



A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

Mr, Jenkins's station at Grateful-HilL — Letter of 
/. »S;. Lane, Esq. — Hostility to missions, — Smith 
and Shrewsbury , — Defence of the Wesley an mis- 
sionaries.— Letter of the Rev, Joseph Taylor, — 
Rev, R, Watson on Wesleyan missions, — Letter 
from, — Rev. Mr, Trew on missions, — Remarks on 
the late rebellion in Jamaica, — Fidelity of religious 
slaves, — Mr, Box's imprisonment, — Jeopardy of the 
missionaries. — Letter from Mr, Jenkins on the con- 
dition of the slaves. — Reasons for controverting its 
contents. — Food of slaves, — Clothing. — Sabbath, — 
Rev, Mr, Trew's remarks upon, — Labour of slaves, 
— Punishment, — Dr, Williamson upon, — Rev, Mr, 
Trew upon : Female fogging : Awful case of — 
Extract from the Jamaica *^ Christian Record:'' 
Cases of great cruelty Abolition of slavery, — 
Jeremie's Four Essays'"* on, — Mr. Beaumont's 
speech. — Substitution of missionary labours for the 
cart-whip. 

The letter of Mr. Shipman, with which the last 
chapter concludes, shows the nature of Mr. Jenkins's 
new scene of labours. It was a mountainous district, 
amidst a slave population, and consequently his access 
to the objects of his mission was liable to be greatly 
facilitated, or much obstructed, by the planters allow- 
ing him access to their Negroes, or their opposition to 
his benevolent exertions. On this subject the following 
letter is instructive. It was written to Mr. Jenkins by 
the late J. S. Lane, esq., a magistrate, and a gentle- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



67 



man of whom Mrs. Jenkins observes, " He and Mrs. 
L. were kind beyond all praise to us while at Grateful- 
Hill, and I believe to all the missionaries who have 
lived at that station." The letter is evidently a reply 
to one which Mr. Jenkins had written him for the pur- 
pose of obtaining a more enlarged field of action : and 
it contains sentiments which, as they come from a 
friend, may furnish some idea of what a missionary has 
to expect from his enemies. 

Cool-Shade, 16th July, 1824, 

" Dear Sir, 

" I am quite ashamed to reply to a letter you 
wrote a month ago, but I had been in the daily ex- 
pectation of seeing you, and conversing with you per- 
sonally, on the subject of your letter. 

" It is my most earnest desire to promote the object 
of your mission, as far as any means I may have in my 
power can do so : and perhaps I may have a very heavy 
responsibility to account for in not having done it, 
where at least I had the authority, upon my own planta- 
tion ; but difiiculties to be overcome, arrangements 
to be made, accompanied with a number of circum- 
stances, none of w^hich I grant were invincible, have 
hitherto prevented my doing what . I most decidedly 
feel to be my solemn duty. 

" If my slaves were generally resident at home, I 
would not hesitate in erecting some place in which to 
assemble ; but the nature of their employment is such 
as to occasion their being employed abroad nine 
months in the year. With the children at home, much, 
I am aware, might be done,— and something shall, 
and will, I trust, be accomplished. 

I have nothing else within my control that could 
be attended to except Harkers-hall, and there I have 
done every thing in my power to induce the slaves to 
attend the ministry at Grateful -Hill ; but with what 
success I know not ; most probably very little. You 
however, I think, complain unnecessarily that you 
have not a sufficient field for your labours : perhaps 
that very impression upon your mind is a sufficient 
proof that you are actively fulfilling the duties which 



68 



A MEMOIR OF 



your calling has imposed upon you ; and which, if 1 
am correctly informed, you are doing to an extent far 
beyond what is consistent with a due regard to your 
health. Allow me, my dear sir, to add, that this is a 
period little calculated for too much prominent and 
active exertion. A spirit of hostility to sectarians, of 
every description, has gone forth, and is most actively 
encouraged, by those who are averse to religious im- 
provement in any shape, or under any denomination 
whatever. Where a great evil has been accomplished, 
those who have been the sufferers are not very likely 
to draw nice distinctions ; nor really can I myself see 
of what consequence it can be, to a man who is reduced 
to beggary and ruin, whether it has been brought 
about by the designing villany of a man like Smith, 
or the imbecility of another like Shrewsbury. 

Missionaries, as well as every other religious per- 
son, should recollect that the age of miracles has 
ceased ; and that, although Almighty God has pro- 
mised the aid of his divine grace to those who ask it, 
he has nowhere promised common sense. A person 
deeply imbued with the spirit of religion will naturally 
make it his governing principle; it will naturally be- 
come so of itself ; but surely not to the exclusion of all 
those other duties which we have to perform in a com- 
munity so widely diversified in its pursuits and objects 
as this present world is. We are to do nothing, most 
undoubtedly, which we believe contrary to the will of 
God : we are to do nothing contrary to his glory 
(which is perhaps the best explanation of doing every 
thing to his glory) ; and yet how different will this 
duty appear to the world when combined with taste 
and good ' sense ! Were I to take the liberty of ad- 
dressing a young missionary, I would strenuously ad- 
vise him to read those books which are most likely to 
improve his judgment and inform his mind ; to give 
him the appearance, at least, of conformity to the 
world in things that are non-essential ; to have nothing 
singular in his appearance or manner ; to avoid morose- 
ness ; to cherish cheerfulness ;-~in short, if he be a 
man of sense, to do precisely what that good sense 
will indicate, combined with religious impressions. If j 



1 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



69 



he be not a man of sense, by no means to give way to 
that accursed itch of writing which appears to be so 
besetting a sin with many, and which was near pro- 
curing for brother Shrewsbury the crown of martyrdom. 
— But enough of this gossipping. 

" We have been expecting you all this week. When 
are we to have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Jenkins 
and Mrs. Crofts ? Please to offer our best regards 
to them ; and be assured I am, with best wishes for 
your success, 

"My dear Sir, 
" Your very faithful servant, 

" James S. Lane." 

" The Rev. J. Jenkins." 

This letter is fertile of instruction, as to the state of 
that society into which Mr. Jenkins's appointment 
threw him, and by whose permission, and in many 
cases by whose concurrence, alone, he could even gain 
access to the objects of his mission. Reference is 
made to a party who were " averse to religious im- 
provement in any shape, and under any denomination 
whatever ;" and, unhappily, this is a very numerous, 
and, in some cases, a very influential party, in the 
West Indies. Their feelings and interests are identified 
with the existence of slavery ; and of this they regard 
the religion of the Bible as entirely destructive. The 
writer of this memoir had no sooner set foot on board 
a ship for a West Indian station than a very respectable 
fellow-passenger declared his decided opposition to the 
religious instruction of the slaves, "because," he said, 
" the New Testament taught that all men are equal in 
the sight of God, and the doctrine of equality must be 
subversive of the necessary subordination." In the 
island of Trinidad, a public meeting was lately held, 
and superintended by a public functionary, which came 
to the resolution, " That any attempt to instil religion 
into the minds of the slaves is incompatible with the 
existence of slavery.'''* This party is incessantly watch- 
ful for every opportunity of attributing insurrectionary 
designs to the missionaries ; and two events had just 
afforded them the most gratifying cause of triumph. 



70 



A MEMOIR OF 



to which Mr. Lane makes the most uncharitable 
reference: — one was the insmTection in Demerara, 
and the condemnation of Mr. Smith, one of " The 
London Missionary Society's'' missionaries ; and the 
other was the destruction of the Wesleyan chapel in 
Bridge Town, Barbadoes, and the very narrow escape 
of Mr. Shrewsbury, the missionary. As though in 
each case there had been the most indisputable proofs 
of guilt, their conduct is here made the foundation of 
censure, and their fate of expostulation and warning, 
though the mode of punishment in both cases was the 
most iniquitous imaginable, — Smith being subjected to 
a mere form of trial by a military tribunal, and 
Shrewsbury having narrowly saved his life, by flight, 
from the violence of a mob, who pulled down his 
chapel and dwelling house, destroyed his furniture, 
and gave his valuable papers and library, in shreds, to 
the winds of heaven. Shrewsbury is charged with 
''imbecility," and an "accursed itch for writing." 
Shrewsbury, however, is well known to the writer of 
this Memoir, and he is ''a man of sound sejise,^^ and 
his abilities were even complimented, in the imperial 
parliament, by the eloquent and lamented Canning. 
That he was not quite so flexible, or silent, as Mr. 
Lane, and the West Indians generally, would have 
wished, is not denied. He is a man of incorruptible 
integrity, and the whole of even his alleged oflfence 
was, he wrote a letter to the Wesleyan Missionary 
Committee, which was afterwards published, contain- 
ing an account of the moral condition of the objects of 
his pious regard and missionary efforts. Though, in 
fairness, it could only be construed as applying to the 
Negro population (for it was to them he was sent), it 
received the construction of ever-vigilant malice, was 
oracularly pronounced to be a libel on the whole com- 
munity ; and summary vengeance, after the custom of 
the West Indians, was awarded to the writer, and very 
speedily executed. If the facts could have been denied, 
the sentence would have been more tolerable ; but this 
was impossible ; and it could only offfend those who 
claim the privilege of sinning with a high hand, and, 
as far as history, exposure, or punishment are con- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



71 



cerned, sinning with impunity. The Barbadians found 
it much more convenient to quarrel with their sup- 
posed censor than with the sins to which they affected 
to beheve his censure applied ; and it was more agree- 
able to their malignity to execute summary vengeance 
on him and his mission than to " cut off their sins by 
repentance." Shrewsbury had studied his Bible more 
than " Chesterfield's Letters," — the Bible of many of 
the West Indians, — and probably the work to which 
Mr. Lane alludes, as " calculated to give" a mis- 
sionary " the appearance, at least, of conformity to the 
world in things that are non-essential." This advice 
could not be given to Mr. Jenkins because he was 
morose, or unacquainted with the courtesies due to 
good society : for this he was not. His education, his 
employment prior to his entering on the work of the 
ministry, and his knowledge of the Bible, forbade that 
this should be the case. The Bible itself teaches true 
politeness, and requires a regard to even those arbi- 
trary rules which different communities have adopted 
as the terms of social, and friendly, but innocent inter- 
course : for its inspiration and its injunctions are gentle- 
ness and love, and these " do not behave themselves 
unseemly." But it forbids a truckling regard to that 
prudence, as it is called, which would suspend " promi- 
nent and active exertion," at the beck of " a spirit of 
hostility to sectarians of every description," especially 
when such a spirit was most actively encouraged by 
those who are averse to religious improvement in any 
shape, or under any denomination." To submit to 
such characters, and to such a spirit, would be to afford 
them a triumph unworthy of their principles, compli- 
mentary of their cause, and destructive of the interests 
of true rehgion ; and to this Mr. Jenkins was not at all 
disposed by nature, and much less by grace. All the 
regard, however, which even prejudice can require, is 
paid by the Wesleyan Missionary Society, as well as 
their missionaries, to the peace of the West Indian 
islands : and even the permanence of slavery is much 
more likely to be affected by the violent conduct of its 
advocates than by the peaceful proceedings of the 
missionaries. Of this all must be convinced who read 



72 



A MEMOIR OF 



the printed Instructions" which, for many years, 
have been furnished to every missionary, and consider 
the cautious manner in which they even quote the 
Bible, for fear of the Negroes attaching to it a pohtical 
construction. All those passages in which the " liberty" 
or " freedom" of the soul from sin audits consequences 
is spoken of are either avoided, in favour of others 
of a similar import but in different phraseology, or so 
expounded as to be incapable of being misunderstood, 
as well to prevent misconstruction by the ignorance of 
the Negroes as by malicious and watchful opponents. 
The Committee were quite alive to the difficulties of 
a missionary's situation at the time of Mr. Jenkins's 
departure ; and therefore the Rev. Mr. Taylor, one of 
their secretaries, wrote him and his colleagues as fol- 
lows, a few days before their departure : — 

77, Hatton Garden^ London, Jan, I'dth, 182-j. 
Messrs. J. Jenkins & Co., Bristol. 
" My dear brethren, 

" Supposing that you will sail in a day or 
two, I lose no time in writing to you before you depart. 

" Enclosed I send you some circulars respecting 
Demerara and Barbadoes, which you will distribute 
among the brethren in Jamaica, who will dispose of 
them to the best advantage in that island. 

Your stations, as named to Mr. Shipman, are, 
Kingston, Mr. Jenkins ; Montego-Bay, Mr. Allen ; 
St. Ann's, Mr. Whitehouse. These, however, may be 
subject to some alteration by the brethren on the spot, 
who know the local circumstances, and may have suffi- 
cient reason for some alteration. 

" At this time especially, when great anxiety pre- 
vails in the West Indies, you must carefully attend to 
your printed instructions. You will be under the 
necessity of most carefully guarding your words, in 
and out of the pulpit, that you may not be misunder- 
stood. The advice of your brethren there, with whom 
you will be stationed, you will of course duly attend to, 
and on every occasion seek, where yourselves may be 
at all in doubt. On ship-board be punctual and indus- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



73 



trious." — After some miscellaneous instructions respect- 
ing their conduct to each other he concludes, 
" I am, my dear Brethren, 

" Yours truly, 
" Joseph Taylor." 

If the opponents of the Wesleyan missionaries 
would but reflect on the utter impossibility that their 
charges should be correct, it may be hoped that, out 
of respect to their own judgments, they would abandon 
their opposition. They profess to object to what they 
invidiously call " secret meetings,'^'' for they know they 
cannot successfully object to what is heard by thou- 
sands in public. But if they were but to remember 
that the instructions in the meetings of the mem- 
bers of the Wesleyan societies are chiefly given 
by the leaders (for sometimes the missionary is not 
even present), and that these leaders are frequently 
respectable white and free coloured people, all of 
whom are slave-holders, they would see the absurdity 
of supposing that they are employed to teach rebel- 
lion. The following extract from the Rev. Richard 
Watson's ^' Defence of the Wesleyan ^Methodist Mis- 
sions " is but a fair statement of the case between the 
missionaries and their calumniators ; and Mr. Watson, 
it must be remembered, was one of the resident mis- 
sionary secretaries at the time of its publication. 

" In the case of the Methodist missionaries, those 
who have the direction of them know of no instance of 
any of them having preached seditious doctrines. In 
the course of more than thirty years no complaint of 
this kind, either from any of the missionaries respecting 

j their brethren, or from any other quarter where it had 
the appearance of being more than one of those 
general aspersions so frequently made by heated par- 
tisans in every cause, has reached them : nor does their 
know^ledge of the character and conduct of the mis- 

( sionaries of other societies afford any instance of such 
misconduct on their part, in which the Methodist mis- 
sionaries could be involved from the indiscriminate 
application of the term Methodist to missionaries of 

\ every denomination. 

I H 



74 



A MEMOIR OF 



" The instructions uniformly given to the mission- 
aries before their appointment could only lead to this 
result. Men going forth to accomplish a specific 
object, to which they are directed to turn their whole 
attention, without mingling any foreign or worldly 
considerations with it (and this is the only condition of 
their being employed and continued in the work, and 
of the approbation and sanction of those to whose 
direction they were committed) were not likely in many 
cases to become politicians and civil reformers ; nor is 
there any instance known by the managing committee 
where this character has been assumed by the mission- 
aries under their superintendence. They have been 
constantly instructed to consider their object and ap- 
pointment as purely religious ; not to interfere at all in 
the civil relations of master and slave, except by en- 
forcing the Christian precept on that point ; * and as 
far as they could with a good conscience, and consist- 
ently with the great business of instructing and chris- 
tianising the negro slaves, to conform to the regulations 
and even prejudices of the whites. Such instructions 
were supposed to have the authority of the apostle of 
the Gentiles. Christianity found a great portion of 
society, in the civilised world to which it was first com- 
municated, in a state of absolute servitude ; but it 
neither sanctioned the practice of slavery, nor directly 
abrogated it. It taught men duties suitable to the 
circumstances in which it found them. It taught all 
men mercy, justice, peace, sobriety, diligence, and 
brotherly love ; and left those great principles gradu- 
ally to work that amelioration in the civil state and 
relations of society, in which all would be equally inter- 
ested. By this model the Methodist missionaries have 
been directed to conduct themselves in the West 
Indies ; and if, indeed, the indirect and ultimate effect 
of the Christianity they preach should be the same as 
the Christianity of the first ages, with which they hope 
it accords — if there should be in it a principle averse to 
slavery, and in its issue destructive of it, a position 

* 'Servants (covXol, slaves) obej- in all things your masters 
according to the flesh/ &c. Col. iii. 22. 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS, 



75 



which the friends of missions do not affect to deny — 
yet it is to be recollected that the modern missionaries 
are not on this account, any more than the primitive 
preachers of Christianity, political characters ; that 
their objects are still purely religious ; that any objec- 
tions to them on probable ultimate results lie with 
equal force against Christianity itself, and against all 
missionaries who teach it, whether of the establishment 
or not. Even the colonists of Jamaica cannot make 
this a reason for opposing missions, when they have 
put it on record in an official document that they them- 
selves do not object to the abolition of domestic 
slavery, which now exists among them, being left to 
some such gradual operation of principles and events 
as finally abolished domestic slavery in the states of 
Europe. In that section of the report of the com- 
mittee of the house of assembly in Jamaica entitled 
' Profane and Scriptural History of Slavery,' after 
remarking on the causes which produced the abroga- 
tion of slavery in the Roman empire and in modern 
Europe, the reporters conclude, 

* What is the fair deduction from these cases ? That time, and 
the regular course of human affairs, will accomplish in the British 
colonies what they brought about in the Roman empire and 
modern Europe, without direct legal enactments, and little 
assistance from any political institutions.' 

In his " instructions," a Wesleyan missionary is 
" cautioned against engaging in any of the civil dis- 
putes or local politics of the colony to which " he is 
" appointed, either verbally or by correspondence 
with any person at home or in the colonies and the 
same disregard to their civil condition in his communi- 
cations is occasionally the subject of private caution, as 
is evident from the following letter from the same 
eminent individual to Mr. Jenkins : — 

" Lo7idon, Oct, lOth, 1825. 

" My dear brother, 

" Sir George Rose informs me that new 
attorneys have been appointed for the Morant and 

^ Watson's " Defence," pp. 106 — 111. 



76 



A MEMOIR OF 



Coley estates, in which he has an interest, and that he 
has written out instructions favourable to your en- 
couragement. 

" We beg, therefore, that you will pay a careful 
attention to those estates, and write us to inform the 
committee how often you visit them, what you do, and 
how you are received. What we want to know is 
that you pay those estates proper attention, and what 
good you are doing ; and whether you meet with 
obstructions or encouragement. As to civil matters, 
we wish nothing respecting them. 

" I trust, dear brother, you are happy in your work, 
and that it prospers with you. My regards to your 
colleague Mr. Kerr. I reorret to hear that he has 
been ill and his family ; but I hope that they may be 
long spared to be useful. Write often and fully. We 
have no particular news in England. The Lord be 
with you. 

" I am, dear brother, 

" Yours most truly, 

" Richard Watson." 

This letter shows a scriptural anxiety in the com- 
mittee to keep the minds of the missionaries directed 
to what in their instructions they call "the proper 
work of his mission," and with which they require that 
" the period of his temporary residence in the West 
Indies is to be filled up ; " and I am persuaded that if 
the abolition of slavery depended on rebellion, or on 
" political institutions," supplied with information and 
encouraged in their efforts by Wesley an missionaries, 
it would exist as long as the sun and moon endure. 
The writer of this Memoir attended so closely to his 
instructions that he never sent information to the most 
intimate of his friends that so much as an instruynent 
of punishment existed in the West Indies. The 
effects of their labours prove that they are faithful men, 
whose characters ought to be considered as above sus- 
picion. This is a truth which is so forcibly stated by the 
Rev. Mr. Trew, eleven years a resident clergyman in 
Jamaica, that I make no apology for the introduction 
of the following: extract from his Nine Letters to the 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



77 



Duke of Wellington on Colonial Slavery^ It em- 
bodies the result of his own valuable observation and 
experience on the subject, and shows the awful extent 
to which prejudice prevails, and to which vigilance 
and opposition are exercised by that party whom Mr. 
Lane describes as " averse to religious improvement 
in any shape or under any denomination whatever." 

" The appointment of bishops to control and super- 
intend the affairs of the West Indian church proves 
the anxiety of the British government that the slaves 
should have the freest access to the means devised for 
their religious instruction. This measure, so truly 
desirable and important, was adopted with the free 
concurrence of all parties. The bishops, on landing 
in the islands, were received with every demonstra- 
tion of respect ; and wherever they went, in the dis- 
charge of their official duties, the same degree of 
deference everywhere awaited them. In order to the 
exercise of their ecclesiastical functions, it was neces- 
sary that many of the existing laws relating to the 
government of the clergy should be repealed, a mea- 
sure which was readily adopted by the local legis- 
lators with the least possible delay, and every obstacle 
that stood in the way of their having the fallest and 
the most commanding influence over the clergy was 
removed. Thus far it would seem as if the West 
Indian church was prepared for the performance of a 
great work, since it possessed all the machinery that 
was necessary for carrying into effect the benevolent 
designs of the British government. But mark the 
mistake. Not a single obstacle that stood in the way 
of the religious instruction of the slave was set aside. 
The master continued to maintain an authority as 
absolute over the soul as over the body of the slave. 
He continued to possess the power of repeUing all 
religious teachers from his estate, no one daring, 
without his authority, not the mitre excepted, to set 
foot upon it, even on Sundays or negro-days, to 
preach, or teach, or otherwise to infringe upon his pre- 
rogative. And in this state things remain in Jamaica 
at this very hour. The consequence is, that few 
masters will consent to have their slaves instructed at 

H 2 



78 



A MEMOIR OF 



all ; and that the instruction given in ninety-nine out 
of one hundred cases is merely oral; and that the 
simple boon of permitting them to learn to read is 
withheld by their superiors. And why withheld? 
The man who would perpetuate the evils of slavery, 
and farther entail them upon unborn generations, is 
perfectly consistent in such opposition. Knowledge 
is power: and, could the slaves be held in their original 
blindness, there would be nothing to hinder the master, 
whilst such ignorance prevailed, from maintaining the 
same sovereign and undisturbed authority which he 
has been wont to do. But, in these days of light, 
it were impossible to preclude it from breaking in 
here and there upon the Negro's mind, although the 
utmost precautions were adopted for keeping it from 
him. Knowledge the slave will have, whether his 
master will or not ; and hence it more deeply concerns 
the planter to see that he is instructed in right prin- 
ciples. There is a powerful evidence that may be 
adduced in order to prove the superiority of know- 
ledge (when tempered by religious instruction) in 
preserving the peace and the security of the colonies. 
It is a fact which cannot be disputed, and that may be 
proved to the satisfaction of government, that in no 
single instance in the island of Jamaica has a solitary 
case been known of treason or rebellion being charged 
against any of the negro slaves who have been in church 
communion with the ministers of the Establishment, of 
the Moravian, of the Wesleyan, nor, as far as can be 
ascertained, of the Baptist persuasions. Whilst it is 
notorious that, in those districts where rebeUion has 
raised its anti- christian arm, there has been either a 
want of fidelity on the part of the resident clergy, or 
the unhappy slaves who have been deluded into con- 
spiracies have been cut off from the means of religious 
instruction, as well as from a participation in those 
Christian privileges placed within reach of their more 
fortunate brethren. This assertion is not made 
unadvisedly ; and the fact is put forth as a powerful 
argument why, on the grounds both of political expe- 
diency and of the personal well-being and security of 
the whole population of the West India Islands, the 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



79 



Negro should have the most uncontrolled access to 
every authorised religious teacher. 

" But in Jamaica the representatives of compara- 
tively very few estates tolerate the labours of the 
Christian teacher, and still fewer would admit him to 
that confidential intercourse with the slave in his own 
dwelling which has been already not'.ced. Nay more, 
it has sometimes happened that proprietors — and they 
females too — less humane than their own resident 
agents, have expelled the minister without assigning 
any cause : thus preventing him from pursuing his 
Christian labours on the estate, although the instruction 
so imparted was without cost, given by a minister of 
the Establishment, merely oral, and usually during the 
hours of recreation allotted to the slave. Can it be 
wondered at, then, that any general attempt to teach 
the slave to read should be construed into an act little 
short of treason ? —that, by many of the planters, the 
sight of a book in a Negro's hand should be viewed 
with much the same feelings of indignant suspicion as 
the Roman Catholic priest would eye the possession of 
a Bible by an Irish peasant ? 

Let these obstacles, then, to the religious instruc- 
tion of the slave be done away for ever. Concede, to 
every minister of the Establishment, the freest access 
at all times to the slaves on their own plantations : 
and to every missionary, and to every school-master 
and mistress, producing satisfactory testimonials to 
the lawfully constituted authorities, let the same 
freedom of admission be also extended. Should a 
presumption at any time arise against any of these 
individuals of their having exceeded the limits pre- 
scribed by their office, by inculcating in the minds of 
the slaves principles or precepts at variance with the 
peace of society, then let them be made amenable to 
justice, and let that justice be armed with a tenfold 
penalty against them. Nor let it he forgotten that 
If such were the design of the missionaries to unsettle 
the Negro mind, and to rouse him to revenge his 
wrongs, the die would long ere this have been cast 
with the British colonies, and a fame would have been 
kindled, which not all the artifice of man could have 



80 



A MEMOIR OF 



extinguished, and the chain that binds the slave ivoitld 
have fallen off for ever. But maligned as the mis- 
sionaries have been, and misinterpreted as their pro- 
ceedings are, such is not their office, as the peaceful, 
and civilising, and practical effects already produced 
through their instrumentality, on the lives of so many 
thousands, abundantly testify. Yes, if there were not 
a British bayonet w^ithin the vs^hole confines of slavery, 
strange as the assertion may seem to be, the Christian 
missionaries alone, w^ith free access to the objects of 
their benevolence, would stem the torrent of discord at 
the fountain, and proTe to their country a protection 
against every internal commotion. 

" Remove, then, the various impediments to the in- 
struction of the slave at present existing, and Britain 
shall yet rejoice in the prosperity of her colonies. 
Leave them as they now are, and I will venture to 
predict that twenty years shall not have expired till 
they shall be lost to her for ever." 

The lamentable rebellion of the slaves in Jamaica, 
in December last, furnishes conclusive evidence that 
Mr. Trew understands the precarious tenure on which 
the proprietors of slaves in Jamaica hold their pro- 
perty both in their crops and their Negroes. Property 
to the amount of nearly ^1,300,000 was consumed, 
and 2000 Negroes were destroyed, before the in- 
surrection could be quelled : awful proofs these of 
the vain attempts of their masters to suppress the love 
of freedom by drying up the sources of knowledge. It 
is true that the opponents of negro instruction have 
even exceeded their former selves in their unsupported 
charges, and their unchristian violence, against the 
peaceful objects of their unhallowed vituperation. 
There is, however, what has been called " the chapter 
of accidents^'' which has already unfolded its pages to 
the utter confusion of the enemies of negro instruction 
by Wesleyan missionaries, and is presenting the most 
pleasing results. The following extract of a letter 
from a Wesleyan missionary at Montego-Bay shows 
the anxiety of these faithful men in reference to their 
members, their fears lest even by force they should 
be compelled to participate in rebellion, and their joy 



THE REV. JOHN JEXKIXS. 



81 



when they are found faithful to the instructions which 
they have received. It is dated January 9th 1832, 
while the insurrection was in progress. 

" I believe many of our people wall be murdered by 
the rebels, and I am afraid that others to save them- 
selves will join them ; but these are only my fears. 
For instance we have a number of members upon 
Bogue estate, a little out of town : a man named Muir 
is a leader there, and he staid at his master's house as 
long as he could, and, when he found he could not save 
it, he got all the valuables away into a hiding-place, 
and the house was seen in a blaze from the town. 
Where, it was enquired, is Muir ? Has he joined the 
rebels ? My heart sunk wathin me, and in this state 
we remained for several days ; when on Saturday, 
judge of my feelings, Muir issued from his hiding- 
place, ran to town, found his master, and gave him the 
intelligence. The property is now being brought to 
town in carts. But I cannot exult beyond this. Muir 
has been faithful, but where are the rest of our mem- 
bers belonofinor to the Boofue ? We cannot tell : time 

^ . . . \ 

will show. This is a season of great anxiety. Richard 

Lewis, one of our leaders at Ramble, sent word to his 
overseer on guard that he would endeavour to defend 
the property to the last, and perish in the flames 
rather than desert it. 

I have just heard that our Bogue members have 
all been faithful to their masters. I continue to hear 
pleasing accounts from other quarters, for which I am 
thankful." 

The following are from other parts of the island. 

Extract of a letter from a Wesley an missionary at 
Port Antonio^ dated 9th January, 1832. 

" Since the commotions which now agitate the 
coimtry^ began, I have been led to bless God that, as 
far as I can ascertain, none of our people in this circuit 
have at all been implicated in any thing which is 
wrong ; but, on the contrary, I have heard that our 
people on the estates in the neighbourhood of Man- 



82 



A MEMOIR OF 



chioneal did all they could to persuade the rest of the 
Negroes to go to work as usual. At Hope- Bay and 
its vicinity all are very quiet ; and I have been con- 
gratulated on the orderly conduct of our members 
there. All our people about this place at this critical 
juncture set an example worthy of imitation ; and, if 
all had religion, all would endeavour to be peace- 
makers and not peace-destroyers. It is my aim, as far 
as in me lies, " to live peaceably with all men ; " and, 
like the rest of my brethren, I rejoice in knowing that 
I have nothing to fear from a rigid examination of my 
conduct, and the doctrines I am in the habit of preach- 
ing." 

Extract of a letter from Lucea^ dated January 
lOth, 1832. 

For ourselves I believe we have nothing to fear: 
there are numbers who would gladly mix us up with 
the affair, but the facts are against them. At present 
I have not heard of an individual connected with our 
society being concerned in it. Some may be misled 
and others forced to join the rebels." 

From subsequent accounts it appears that two such 
characters have been flogged for being in some way 
connected with the rebels. Their punishment shows 
that they were not deeply implicated ; and the in- 
formation adds that their guilt was very questionable. 
Probably they fell into the hands of such men as have 
imprisoned Mr. Box, one of the missionaries, for 
five days in a loathsome dungeon, among the most 
wretched negro felons ; who have written hard and 
long to induce the authorities to diversify the beautiful 
scenery of Trelawny woods, by hanging from the 
trees the bodies of the missionaries, and whose inhu- 
man cry has been — " Shoot them first, and try them 
afterwards ! 

The Rev. Mr. Pennock, the chairman of the district, 
writes, " In consequence of the inflammatory articles 
which have appeared in the infamous Courant, our 
lives have been, and still are, in imminent danger ; but 
the power of God, and a consciousness of our own in- 



THE REV. JOHX JENKIX5. 



83 



iiocence, support our minds in the midst of danger. 
You will perceive, by some of the papers, that Messrs. 
Barry, Kerr, and myself, have had an interview with 
his Excellency the Governor. We w^ent to challenge 
investigation, and to implore protection for our families : 
this we found it necessary to do, in consequence of the 
public excitement against us, occasioned by the Cou- 
rant. We feel something more safe now, but still our 
lives are in jeopardy every hour. In Kingston we 
continue our services as usual : we preach peace and 
obedience : and all our people most fervently unite in 
praying for the restoration of peace to the country. 
We are fully of opinion that, as st)on as the present 
commotion subsides, a vigorous attempt will be made 
by our enemies to transport us from the island : nor 
should I be surprised if they succeed. But we are in 
the hands of God, and must stand still and see his sal- 
vation. In consequence of the present agitated state of 
the island, I have postponed our district meeting, and 
have ordered every brother to remain at his post until 
further orders, and to exert himself to the uttermost 
to restore and preserve the peace of the country." 

These extracts show, in a most forcible Horht. the 
state of the community in which Mr. Jenkins had to 
commence his labours. In the West Indies generally 
it has always been the misery of the missionaries to be 
in scttiSj. degree at the mercy of a class of malignant 
newspaper editors, and their auxiliary, anonymous scrib- 
blers. This has been especially the case in Jamaica. 
Lately, however, " The Watchman" has been estab- 
lished there, which advocates their cause ; and so does 
" The Kingston Chronicle." From Grateful-Hill, the 
first scene of Mr. Jenkins's labours, Mr. Edny writes 
as folios. His letter is dated January 13th, 1832: — 

" Y^u wall be pleased to know that in this exten- 
sive circuit there is 7iot a single Negro icho is not 
steadily at his oicner'^s work. Such is the influence of 
the grace of God on this degraded race ! It is stated 
in the Kingston Chronicle that no member of the 
Methodist society, in the parishes where the rehellion 
has been the most powerful, has been detected. ; and 



84 



A MEMOIR OF 



some of them have even perished in the flames to save 
their master"* s property from the general destruction,^^ 

The late insurrection is likely to prove more fertile 
of persecution to the religious Negroes than it can 
possibly be to their teachers, because they are more at 
the mercy of those whose interests have been affected, 
and whose minds are incensed. Of this the following 
extract from " The Christian Advocate^'' newspaper is 
a melancholy proof : — 

" The Slave Henry Williams, — The public will no 
doubt recollect the slave, Henry Williams, who was so 
severely punished by Mr. Betty, at the instigation of 
the Rev. G. W. Bridges, the Rector of St. Anns, be- 
cause he refused to attend the minist^of the rev. gen- 
tleman, preferring that of the Wesley an missionary, to 
which Society he belonged. The full particulars of his 
case were inserted in the ' Christiarf Advocate^ last 
spring. From the ' Jamaica WatSfimj^^ of the ^5th 
of January last, we regret to learn that This unfortunate 
slave was, about a week before, tak^Jwom the e^tS^e 
which he had been superintending 4n,^the abs^ce 6f 
the white people (who were on militia« duty)*^ and 
questioned as to what the missionaries ^t that.-.place 
had preached to them, &c. ; but hiator^ers, v^e^ are 
told, were deemed unsatisfactory and impertiii^nt, and 
he was sentenced to receive 340 lash^, the w^iole of 
which could not be inflicted, a doctor who v^fj||fc^rby 
declaring he would die under it. *We do says 
the editor of the Watchman, ' profess to be a^mainted 
with the particulars of this case oftij^nparalU^ bar- 
barity ; but, as soon as we are in possession*"^ them, 
we shall not fail to expose them and the^^hors to 
public execration. The public authorities^H|f called 
upon in behalf of this suffering man ; and, ifgtianity 
still exist among us, his complaint, his agP^, cry 
aloud to them for redress. This cruel transaction is a 
further blot on the character of the parish of St. Ann, 
and criminality will attach, to them until they investi- 
gate, with strict impartiality, an affair so horrible, so 
inhuman ! The sequel of this melancholy tale shall be 
shown, and, untiljustice make reparation to the guiltless 



THE RET. JOHN' JEXKIXS. 



85 



sufferer, our voice shall be raised, and it shall be heard 
throughout the British empire !' " 

In reference to this often-persecuted Negro, it is 
obvious to all that one of two cases must be taken for 
granted: 1st, His fidelity was such that, when the 
ordinary superintendents of the property were obliged 
to leave it, to assist in quelling so awful an insurrection, 
he was left by them in charge of the estate : or. 
2dly, Such was his attachment to his religious princi- 
ples, that he refused to join the deluded rebels, and 
voluntarily superintended the estate in the absence of 
white people. And yet this is the man who, when 
these same white people resume their wonted authority, 
is made the subject of inquisitorial examination ; and, 
because consistently with truth he cannot inculpate 
those to whose instructions he owes his fidelity, he is 
made the miserable victim of their impious rage ! Mr. 
Barrett, a member of the Jamaica assembly, when 
speaking of the instrument of this poor wretch's torture, 
called it an " odious, horrid, and detestable instrument," 
and added, " I do say that thirty-nine lashes with this 
horrid instrument can be made more grievous than 500 
lashes with a cat." Thirty-nine is but the ordinary num- 
ber which may be inflicted by any white man without 
even the shadow of a trial. What, then, must have been 
the state of this faithful and inteUigent slave (for it has 
been abundantly proved that he is both) had nature 
held out to the full extent of the sentence ? His crime 
was, his answers were deemed unsatisfactory and 
impertinent!" That they were "unsatisfactory" no 
one who know^s his persecutors will doubt : for they in- 
tended him to condemn the missionaries : and that 
enraged slave-owners would deem any answer of a 
slave "impertinent" which was " unsatisfactory" 
every one who knows their general character will be 
disposed to admit : and in these cases they generally 
seek satisfaction in blood. What they call " imperti- 
nence" is a great crime ! On the subject of those 
" vague, loose" charges, which are " contrary to ap- 
proved principles of law," see Lord Goderich's In- 
structions to West India Governors, dated Nov. 5, 
1831 : x\nti"Slavery Reporter, pp, 48, 49 of No. 92. 



86 



A MEMOIR OF 



Mr. Box has been fully acquitted of cause for even 
the suspicion of a charge, and Hberated from his loath- 
some confinement : and when the deputation, above 
alluded to, waited on his Excellency, he ^' assured them 
that he knew nothing to their prejudice, and therefore 
any investigation into their conduct was wholly un- 
called for." His Excellency, however, is now sharing 
with the missionaries the abuse of the scribblers above 
described ; because, forsooth, he has pronounced them 
innocent, and promised them protection, after these 
gentlemen had oracularly condemned them, and cla- 
moured for their blood ! O, how much need have 
missionaries who are placed in such circumstances of 
the wisdom of the serpent, and the harmlessness of the 
dove ! The letter which has occasioned these remarks 
will show that they have not only to contend with the 
opposition of the avowed opponents of missions, but 
with the chilling, and consequently the more dangerous 
advice of influential friends, who are not always proof 
against the calumnies of their enemies. 

The opponents of missions affect to apprehend much 
mischief to their interests from the accounts which are 
sometimes forwarded by missionaries in the West Indies 
to their friends at home. The following extract of a 
letter, however, will show that these accounts are some- 
times sufficiently flattering. It is directed to the Rev. 
Mr. Saunders, the superintendent of the Ashburton 
circuit, while Mr. Jenkins travelled there : — 

" Grateful-Hill, Aug. ^\st, 1824. 
My very, very, dear Brother, 

" I am convinced that long before this you have 
expected to hear from me the assurance of my — of our 
— affection, and that the Great Head of the church 
has made our way prosperous. If I have kept you in 
anxiety or doubt, I am heartily sorry ; but I have been 
prevented writing you before by circumstances over 
which it is not the prerogative of human foresight to 
exercise authority, and against the occurrence of which 
there is no appeal. I will not murmur, and I hope 
you will forgive. 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



87 



Mrs. Jenkins and I, in our hours of solitude (of 
which we have had many), have frequently recounted 
your, and our dear Mrs. Saunders's, kindness to us. 
I would, if my feelings permitted, tell you many things 
for which I am indebted to you, and many things which 
lay me under obligations to you and Mrs. S., that I 
would never wish (if it were possible) to cancel : they 
shall be known at the resurrection of the just : till then 
our hearts shall be their repositories : but their remem- 
brance shall never die. 

" My little acquaintance with the country, its cus- 
toms, &c., &c., prevent my writing much that you 
might wish to know, or which might be worth sending. 
Yet two or three things, which do not occur at home, 
I will detail. I expected, on my appointment to Ja- 
maica, to find at my arrival an ignorant, depressed, 
and miserable set of people, whose knowledge was as 
little as their condition was destitute. It is not saying 
enough to assert I was disappointed : I was astonish- 
ingly disappointed. As it regards the slave population, 
its knowledge very far exceeds that of the lower classes 
of society at home ; — the slaves are cunning to a 
proverb. But, though there is a great deal of cun- 
ning, prevarication, and deceit in their character, yet, 
if you engage their affections, they are most affectionate 
and constant. But, in consequence of their general 
characteristics, I have always been averse to admit 
any thing more than a proper pastoral familiarity. 
When in England, I certainly formed notions that I do 
not now entertain respecting the condition of the slaves. 
As it regards the abstract notion of slavery, my 
opinion remains the same ; but, as it regards the con- 
dition of a slave, I am changed. Where is there a 
peasant in England that is provided by his master with 
a house — a field as large as he may like to cultivate 
with food, for his children, his wife, and self — who 
goes to work at five in the morning, and leaves by law 
at four P. M. — who has Saturday once a fortniglit to 
carry provisions to town, to procure more than is pro- 
vided — who has a regular allowance of clothing for 
himself and family, as well as a medical attendant 
who by law prescribes what he thinks needful — besides 



88 



A MEMOIR OF 



other, many other, things that I might mention ? 
Where, I may ask, are such to be found in the land of 
liberty ? Were you to walk into my chapel (in the 
very midst of a slave population), you would be pre- 
vented, by astonishment, making any comparison with 
the peasantry in England ; for you would not see in 
the whole congregation, from a child of three to an 
old woman of seventy, a female with a worse gown 
than you might like to see Mrs. S. in, or I Mrs. J. 
This is fact. 

" My station is, I suppose, one the most like mis- 
sionary in the island. I live upwards of twenty miles 
(in the midst of plantation imA coffee mountains) from 
any town where we can procure any thing ; and the 
country is so exceedingly mountainous that all we get 
from Kingston, the nearest market town, we have 
brought in small boxes, on the backs of asses and 
mules. Our provision is mostly salt, when we can get 
it : unless when a neighbour kills a pig (of which you 
know I am mightily fond), we then get a little fresh 
pork. Our bread we get from England, or the Ameri- 
can continent, in the form of biscuits ; but not many of 
them, as they are dear. However, blessed be the kind 
hand of Him who has said, ' Ye are of more value 
than many sparrows,' we are ' full and abound.' 

It would melt your heart to see my chapel and 
regular congregation. The chapel is built upon the 
summit of a hill, about 1500 feet above the level of the 
sea, surrounded by hills much higher still, from the 
sides of which, to the distance of from three to twenty 
miles, the people regularly walk to hear the word of 
life. O, when I look at them, my heart burns within 
me, and I could die to publish to them the gospel of 
the Lord Jesus. The demeanour of the people is cer- 
tainly better than could be expected. Their labour to 
attend God's house — their decent clothing — their at- 
tention and solemnity during divine service — their great 
attachment to their ministers — and the simplicity of 
their relations of Divine operations — are decided and 
incontrovertible proofs that many hundreds with whom 
I am now acquainted, and of whom I have made en- 
quiry, possess the saving influences of religion. My 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



89 



labour is more than, as it regards health, I can with 
safety perform ; and applications are so frequently made 
for my assistance that I cannot attend to Grateful- 
Hill and Unity. I have a society of more than 600; 
the congregations are large ; to them I have to pay 
great attention, in addition to my schools, and meetings 
for catechetical instruction almost every day ; funerals, 
baptizings, marry ings, visiting the sick, &c. &c. ; so 
that I am mostly out for hours, riding about in a sun 
which almost burns me to death. Many times the at- 
mosphere has been so extreme that I have been in- 
capable of breathing ; it has been like inhaling fire at 
the mouth of an oven : don't think that I exceed truth. 
This may lead you to form some sort of judgment : in 
our passage from IMorant-Bay to Kingston the glass 
was frequently 120 degrees, and for hours it stood at 
110 degrees in the shade. Our feet were blistered 
through our boots,* and our faces so dreadfully so, 
that we dared only to apply wet cloths to them. It is 
not unfrequent for our shoulders to be blistered in 
only riding a short distance. From such a statement, 
you may well think that I have roasting to my heart's 
content ; and yet I am generally better than when at 
home; for such I love to call the land of my birth, and 
the place where I can enjoy the friendship and inter- 
course of my very dear friends. But such a home it 
is more than probable we shall never see more, and 
such friends I must not expect to see again, till I see 
them from heaven, where I hope to dwell, while they 
maintain the fight for endless joy. O ! my dear 
brother, 'tis the hope of heaven keeps me up, and the 
expectation of meeting my dear friends there ! We 
live in the midst of death : many die in a moment, 
and most after a few hours' sickness. You must there- 
fore stand prepared to hear of our removal. 

" I shall expect a letter from you as soon as possible, 
that is by the first packet. A letter from my beloved 
friends is like springs of water in this thirsty land. — I 

* ''Boots" on board a coasting vessel in the West Indies ! 
This is truly a European idea. Experience, I dare saj, would 
soon teach them that slippers would be more compatible w^ith 
comfort. 

I 2 



90 



A MEMOIR OF 



would mention the names of the dear people at Ash- 
burton, and the circuit; of Sticklepath, and the circuit; 
but must forbear. When you write, make my kind, 
very kind, love to them, and assure them I never can 
forget any of them, or the promises I made them. 
Many scraps of time I have gathered to send you this 
letter ; don't let your heart charge me with neglect ; 
but bear with me — ?is — love us, and pray for us, and 
accept the assurance that 

" I am yours sincerely, 

John Jenkins." 

The writer of this memoir considers himself a 
biographer, whose duty it is faithfully to detail the 
statements and opinions of the subject of his story, 
and not as an apologist, whose task it is to defend ; 
and therefore he feels himself at perfect liberty to differ 
from him as occasion may require. The foregoing 
letter v/as written after but a short residence in 
Jamaica, and avowedly on " but little acquaintance 
with the country, its customs, &c. &c. ;" and there are 
several reasons why the writer feels himself compelled 
to demur to many of the vStatements which it contains. 
First, he believes it to be the result of observation on 
some estates where Mr. Jenkins saw every thing 
under a very lenient administration ; for slavery, like 
arbitrary dominion of every other description, puts it 
into the power of a benevolent master to be the author 
of much contentment to his slaves. His journal con- 
tains evidence that he early took up with these favour- 
able ideas of slavery. He arrived at Morant-Bay on 
the 26tli of March, and on the 29th he made the fol- 
lowing entry in his journal : — 

" I am agreeably surprised with the condition of the 
people here, both as it regards their temporal comforts 
and their knowledge. They very, very far exceed my 
expectations, and convince me that the views enter- 
tained of the slave population at the present are quite 
distant from the truth ; for, as to the comforts of life, 
they are far, very far, before the peasantry of our own 
land ; and it seems that the sound of the ivord slave 



THE REV. JOHN JEXKIXS. 



91 



has frightened the world mto innumerable misconcep- 
tions about the state of the individuals themselves. 
They have food, money, clothes, &c. &c., very supe- 
rior to the low^er classes in England. It is true they 
are ignorant and vicious, and some of them are beaten ; 
but let them do their duty and embrace instruction, 
and they will become happy, as very few of them are 
now beaten from mere wantonness, which the former 
managers were charged with." 

Secondly, after a while IMr. Jenkins obtained 
evidence which must considerably have abated his con- 
fidence in proposing the interrogatories contained in 
the above letter, and in penning the opinions contained 
in his journal, if he had written them after the 15th of 
May, 1826. On that day he writes as follows in his 
journal : — 

" I am just returned from estate, where 

my mind has been pleased and greatly pained. The 
progress the children and others make in their reading 
is really great and encouraging, and the anxiety they 
evince to improve is a sure evidence of success. I 
think they also greatly improve in their habits. 

" I found a great number of both children and 
adults in the hospital, and my mind was much affected 
with their complaints against the cruel severity of the 
overseer, who works and flogs almost to death. I 
hardly know how to act. To hear complaints of this 
kind distresses me, but the possibility of making their 
condition more hard prevents me from making appli- 
cation to the civil power. This mode of treatment 
cannot stand. Will not God avenge for these things ? *' 

Thirdly, though Mr. Jenkins's ideas of the com- 
fort of the slaves must have been much moderated 
by observation, yet the writer has an opportunity 
of knowing that, even after his return from abroad, 
his representations of the state of the slaves were 
such as to make much too favourable impressions 
on the minds of those by whom his company and 
conversation were not too highly esteemed. He 
knows a case in which these representations had nearly 



92 



A MExMOIR OF 



turned the vote of a respectable member of our society, 
at a late election, in favour of a candidate who was 
known to be an advocate of the present system of 
slavery. On enquiring into the nature of these repre- 
sentations, he found them to consist in statements of the 
condition of those slaves who are but very rare excep- 
tions to the common circumstances of the Negro, and 
which furnish no truer a history of his ordinary circum- 
stances than an account of the every-day fare of an 
English gentleman's valet would furnish of the com- 
mon provision of the peasant's table. They consisted, 
in short, of a retail of the common-place, thread-bare 
vauntings of the advocates of slavery. Similar accounts 
have been given by other missionaries, and these 
representations have not been confined in their opera- 
tions to vulgar minds ; for it appears from the late cor- 
respondence between M. T. Sadler, Esq., M. P., and 
the Rev. Richard Watson, that such statements from a 
returned missionary had rendered him but too indiffer- 
ent to the results of the late discussions on the subject 
of West Indian slavery in the imperial parliament. 
Such missionaries fall into the very common error of 
reasoning on exceptions instead of rules ; a fallacy to 
which they are the more exposed from their intercourse 
with the interested whites of the West Indies, and the 
condition of the domestic slaves coming more fre- 
quently under their notice than that of the Jield 
Negroes^ who constitute the bulk of the slave popula- 
tion. The fact indeed is, the missionary has but very 
little intercourse with the ordinary field Negroes. He 
converses chiefly with those whose characters and cir- 
cumstances are improved by religion, and that chiefly 
in the way of pastoral intercourse. He systematically 
avoids encouraging complaints, and, when they are 
occasionally and accidentally obtruded on his notice, he 
checks them, and urges, " Let patience have her per- 
fect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking 
nothing." He sees the religious Negroes, chiefly, 
when in holiday trim they attend the chapel, and 
when their appearance is calculated to make the most 
pleasing impressions on such a heart as that of Mr. 
Jenkins. His general observations must be made 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



93 



when he rides the roads, and sees the slaves working* 
on the estates. He is looked upon by the whites in 
g-eneraVwith suspicion, as the enemy of slavery, and 
the spy of " the African Institution." By those who 
respect him and encourage him for his labours he is 
regarded, by principle and profession, as the enemy of 
cruelty, or even of corporeal punishment ; and, of 
course, " the parson,'''^ as he is called, must not witness 
those mysteries of iniquity which w^ould shock his 
feelings, or, if so disposed, put it into his power to 
report any such mysteries to the prejudice of the 
system. If in his travels he hear the valleys ring with 
the horrid reverberations of the cart-whip, he dares 
not interfere, or even stop to witness the infliction, for 
fear of confirming the idea that he is a spy ; and he is 
principally acquainted with the infliction, or the effects 
of this colonial instrument of ordinary torture, by 
accident or by report. 

Though the writer was longer in the West Indies 
than ]\lr. Jenkins, he never saw Jamaica ; but he 
believes he may admit, and he does it with much 
gratification, that the slaves in that island are much 
more liberally fed, and otherwise better provided for, 
than in the other West India Islands. He has no dis- 
position to deny that, even in these islands, in many 
cases, an Englishman will see less of bodily want, or 
of penal infliction, than his education had led him to 
expect ; while in others he will see more than he was 
prepared for by either the relations of history or the 
hereditary antipathies of prejudice. But still he must 
deny that any thing so nearly paradisaical exists in the 
West Indies as Mr. Jenkins's letter implies ; and he is 
not only compelled to deny this, but to prove the 
existence of a very opposite state of things, from facts 
and testimonies which are invulnerable to successful 
controversy. 

The letter here referred to institutes a comparison, 
or rather a contrast, between the free peasant of Eng- 
land and the slave of the West Indies ; and the con- 
fident interrogatory tone which is adopted is such as is 
intended to show, in defiance of all contradiction, that 



94 



A MEMOIR OF 



the contrast is greatly to the prejudice of the condition 
of the peasant. 

First, This contrast has a reference to the food of 
the two parties whose condition is contrasted. The 
quantity and the quality of this, and the means by 
which it is obtained, very naturally come under our 
examination. As it regards its quality^ then, be it 
remarked that the food of the Negroes is not pre- 
tended, even by the advocates of slavery, to be more 
than vegetable food ; for the " herrings " and " salt- 
fish," so commonly found in the bill-of-fare of the 
field NegrOj are not regarded as any thing more than a 
substitute for salt, for the purpose of seasoning the 
veg'^table mess called " pot " by the colonists as well 
as by the Negroes. In common parlance, indeed, the 
terms fish and salt are regarded as convertible. The 
qu^atity will also show that it cannot be given with 
any regard to nourishment. It amounts to two pounds 
of salt-fish, of the worst description, from the New- 
foundland market, each week ; or a shad or herring each 
day for each adult Negro. " Seven herrings or shads, 
or other salt provisions equal thereto, in each week," 
is all that is required for each adult slave, by the 
^' Order in Council of November 2d, 1831," which has 
excited so much opposition on the part of the slave 
proprietors, on account of its imposing on them such 
intolerable burdens as induce them to declare that it is 
impossible to conduct their system, and to oppose it by 
the most violent measures. This opposition is certainly 
not owing to this offensive instrument having decreased 
the comforts of the Negro. The writer of this me- 
moir knows enough of the English peasantry to con- 
fess that there is much suffering among them ; but he 
also knows that the generality of them have a supply, 
however scanty, of bread, and pudding, and meat, and 
milk, and beer, which would add greatly to the com- 
fort of the Negro. He also knows that the climax of 
an Englishman's misery is to be compelled to subsist on 
vegetable food, though the potato of the Englishman 
is a much superior vegetable to the yam of the Negro; 
and these are the two great vegetable productions 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



95 



which, in such a contrast as this, must be made the 
rule of argumentation. That a few of the Negroes, 
especially tradesmen, and drivers on the estates, may 
increase their comforts by working on the Sabbath- 
day, the writer does not deny, especially if they be 
religious Negroes ; for religion makes them both sober 
and industrious, and renders all their means available 
for the purpose of support. 

As it regards the quantity of food, the following 
remarks, it is believed, cannot be contradicted by any 
w^ho are acquainted with the West Indies : — 

" In the Leeward Islands, comprising Antigua, St, 
Christopher's, Nevis, Montserrat, and Tortola, with a 
slave population of about 62,000, the slaves receive 
from their masters an allowance of food fixed by law, 
but so inadequate to the comfortable sustentation of life 
that it does not amount to much more than a third of 
the stipulated allowance in the island of Jamaica to 
run-away slaves, or other delinquents, confined in the 
workhouses and prisons. This will appear from the 
following comparison of the two scales of allowance: — 

The weekly legal allowance of the adult labouring 
slaves in the Leeward Islands, 
9 pints of unground corn ; or 
8 pints of wheat or other flour ; or 

20 pounds of yams ; or 
30 pounds of plantains. 

Weekly legal allowance of persons confined in the 
prisons, (^c, in Jamaica. 
16 pints of unground corn ; or 

21 pints of wheat or other flour ; or 
56 pounds of yams ; or 

56 full-grown plantains, equal to about 75 or 80 
pounds. 

The allowance enforced, in both the home-fed and 
the foreign-fed colonies,* in the Order in Council above 

* The foreign-fed colonies are those which import most of 
their provisions; the home-fed are those which grow them at 
home. The Leeward Islands are foreign-fed colonies. 



96 



A MEMOIR OF 



alluded to, is, " in each week, not less than 21 pint* 
of the flour or meal of Guinea, or Indian corn ; or 21 
pints of wheat flour ; or 56 full-grown plantains ; or 
56 pounds of cocoas or yanns." This, it will be seen, 
is a very great improvement on the allowances in the 
Leeward Islands. 

As to the means of obtaining this support, the fol- 
lowing information, it is believed, is correct : — 

In Barbadoes, Demerara, and Berbice, the slaves 
are fed from provisions grown by the labour of the 
whole gang, and dealt out to them by the master, but 
without the legal limit by which the Leeward- Island 
slave is stinted to the smallest quantity by which his 
life can be sustained. But, if there be no direct legal 
sanction in these three colonies for the same cruelly 
penurious system in feeding the slaves v/hich disgraces 
the legislature of the Leeward-Islands, yet it is obvious 
that to the discretion, or rather to the caprice or avarice, 
of the owner alone it is left to decide as to the quantity 
of food which shall be allowed to the slave for his sus- 
tentation or comfort ; and neither in these three colonies, 
nor in the Leeward-Islands, is a single hour allotted 
to the slave by law which he can employ for eking out 
his scanty allowance, on an^^.ay except Sunday. 

In the other West-In^ti colonies, as Jamaica, 
Grenada, St. Vincent, Trirlfe^d, Tobago, Dominica, 
St. L>^cia, &c., the slaves ^ave usually provision- 
grounds allotted to them, and a few days in the year, 
besides Sundays, assigned to them for labouring in 
these grounds for their sustenance : the number of days 
varying in different colonies : in Tobago it amounts 
to thirty-five ; in Jamaica the number is twenty- six ; 
in Trinidad it amounts only to from fourteen to seven- 
teen, and to about the same in the other colonies. On 
these days, in addition to the Sundays, the Negroes raise 
vegetables for their own use, and the surplus, if any, 
they bring on Sundays to market, at a distance fre- 
quently of many miles, ^sometimes ten, twenty, or even 
thirty : the sale of which enables them to purchase a 
few trifling articles, either of food or apparel. In 
addition, they are generally allowed a few salt her- 
rings, or other fish, weekly : and they receive also 



THE RET. JOHN JEXKINS. 



97' 



annually from their masters a small quantity of clothing, 
the least and cheapest that can possibly cover them. 
A few of the more industrious keep a few poultry, and 
perhaps a pig. which also become articles of traffic. 
And thus individual slaves succeed, by dint of parsi- 
mony, in acquiring a little property ; by which, after 
a length of time, they are enabled to purchase their 
freedom. This, however, is a very rare occurrence 
indeed in the case of field slaves. — Their huts are 
built by themselves, often of very rude materials, but 
sometimes with materials furnished by their owners."* 
The writer of this memoir has seen thousands of 
plantation slaves, in the different islands, in our various 
houses of worship, and he never saw them so gaily 
dressed as is specified above, nor so much exceeding 
the EngHsh peasantry. They generally appear, the 
men in a coarse cloth jacket, with Hnen or jean trowsers, 
or a dress of one of tiie latter materials. The women 
wear a white petticoat, and a white wrapper, as it 
is called, which is similar in form to the garment 
worn in a morning by the menial servants in England. 
They wear an apron, and a checked handkerchief on 
the neck, and another wrapped round the head, in 
form of a turban. They sometimes wear shoes, but 
no stockings. They appear remarkably clean ; and 
the cleanliness, liveliness of colour, and great uni- 
formity, gives a congregation of Negroes, especially 
to a stranger, an appearance of comfort perhaps su- 
perior to that of a congregation of English peasantry, 
though there is certainly no superiority in their apparel. 
This clothing, it must be remembered, is procured by 
themselves, and that chiefly by w*orking on the sab- 
bath, as will immediately be shown on most indis- 
putable authority. The " yearly allowance of clothing," 
from the owner, by law, as given in the manifesto 
lately published by forty-one West Indian proprietors, 
is as follows : — " Working males: 1 hat, 1 cloth jacket, 
1 check shirt, 1 pair Osnaburg trowsers, 2 Salampore 
caps, 1 razor or knife, 1 blanket every two years. 

* See Godwin's " Lectures on British Colonial Slavery," pp. 
17, 18. These are popular Lectures, and the writer would ad- 
vise the publication of a c/ieap edition for general circulation, 

E 



98 



A MEMOIR OF 



Working females : — 1 hat, 1 gown or wrapper [this is 
of coarse blue cloth like the men's jackets^, 1 check 
shift, 1 Osnaburg petticoat, 1 pair of scissors, a 
blanket every two years." The unconverted female 
slaves, especially domestic slaves, and " house-keepers," 
as they are called, who frequently attend our chapels, 
give even an appearance of splendour to a congrega- 
tion by the gaiety of their attire. But the latter are 
the concubines of the white men, and glitter at the ex- 
pense of their virtue : and this is frequently the case 
with the others also. The fact is, that all the apparel, 
beyond the very coarsest suit which can be purchased, 
as above enumerated, must be procured by the Negroes 
either by sabbath-breaking or prostitution. The per- 
son who looks at the appearance, without being ac- 
quainted with the history of slave congregations, may 
see reason to rejoice in their comforts — but trace these to 
their source, and they are the cause of " mourning, la- 
mentation, and woe !" In the islands where the writer 
laboured, the slaves were not expected to attend the 
chapels above one sabbath in a fortnight, the sabbath 
on which they were allowed to attend the market, and 
this was liable to numberless interruptions. 

These statements show the dependence of the slaves 
on the absolute will of their masters for all they enjoy. 
They are dependent for both the quantity of land and 
for the time to cultivate it, and they are expected to 
work in their own provision-grounds, or go to market 
with their few surplus provisions, on the sabbath, as 
on the other days of the week they work in the grounds 
of their master. On this subject we may refer to the 
testimonies of both the friends and the opponents of 
slavery. Mr. Stewart, a defender of the system, the 
author of a work entitled " The Past and Present State 
of Jamaica," and one who was long a resident in the 
island, observes, " Few of the slaves have it in their 
power to attend church ; for Sunday is not a day of 
rest or relaxation to the plantation slave ; he must 
work on that day or starve." In this respect the slave 
of the West Indies forms as perfect a contrast to the 
English peasant as can exist. The peasant works for 
himself on the six days of the week appropriated to 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS 



99 



labour, and rests on the sabbath ; and the West Indian 
slave, during these six days (with the exception of 
twenty-six days a year, for this is the general rule), 
works for the benefit of his master, and, on the sabbath, 
he must either cultivate his grounds, and go to market 
to dispose of his provisions, or starve. The case is not 
too strongly put in the following extract from the Rev. 
Mr. Trew's Nine Letters to the Duke of Wel- 
lington — 

By the constitution of England the sabbath is ac- 
knowledged as a day of rest, and the law has attached 
to the violation of it (however their exactions may have 
fallen into disuse) pains and penalties. It were mon- 
strous indeed, if, in a nation professedly Christian, the 
divine law, commanding the observance of the sabbath 
as a holy day, should be set aside. It has, however, 
been recognised as a part of the law of the land, and 
all classes, from the lowest to the highest, participate 
in the advantages of it. As a day of rest from worldly 
toil and labour, it is peculiarly a blessing to the poor 
man, independently of those higher privileges which it 
confers upon him, in common with others, in the public 
ordinances oi religion. But, if the sabbath prove thus 
a blessing to the poor cottager of Britain, how much 
more so must it not prove to the Negro slave, who, 
worn out with six days' toil and care, in the unrequited 
service of another, tastes for a little season of the 
sweets and the privileges of freedom ? But has the 
Negro a sabbath on which to rest ? This is a question 
often asked, and much controverted. It shall be 
answered briefly : — The Negro has the semblavce of a 
sabbath. By the Jamaica slave law, there are penal- 
ties attached to the v. orking of sugar-mills on that 
day. The act specifies, ' That during the crop, not 
only shall the slaves, as heretofore, be exempted from 
th« labour of the estate or plantation on Sundays, but 
that no mills shall be put about or worked between 
the hours of seven o'clock on Saturday night and five 
o'clock on Monday morning, under the penalty of 
£20, to be recovered against the overseer or other 
person having the charge of such place.' Such is 



100 



A MEMOIR OF 



the law on the subject ; but what is the fact ? Every- 
one knows that sugar-mills are worked on the Sunday^ 
and commonly at an early hour of the evening ; that 
magistrates, as well as others, join in the violation of 
the law ; and cases have been known to exist wherein 
the very slaves in hospitals have been turned out on the 
evening of the sabbath, to supply the place of the 
Negroes absent at church, or at their grounds, and so 
worked until the others have returned to relieve them. 
Such is the Negro Sabbath. 

" By another clause of the slave law, the slave is al- 
lowed one day in every fortnight to cultivate his pro- 
vision grounds, exclusive of Sundays, except during 
crop time, which often lasts six months of the year, and 
when, of course, the grounds must be laboured on 
Sunday, or the slave perish for want of food. Such is 
the Negro Sabbath. 

" Another clause tells us, ' That no person whomso- 
ever shall employ the slaves of others, for any reward or 
hire to be paid to them, on Sunday, without the consent 
in writing of the overseer first obtained, under a 
penalty of ^5.' Thus may the slave be hired by 
others on Sunday, provided his master consents. Such 
is the Negro Sabbath. 

By an estimate of the number of Sabbaths through- 
out the year on which the converted slaves are found 
to frequent public worship, and taken from the actual 
observation of the missionaries, it appears that they 
cannot attend oftener than about once in three or four 
weeks, or about thirteen times every year— the other 
Sabbaths being spent in providing food for their fami- 
lies ; not to mention their occasional fatigue from the 
spell of the preceding night disqualifying them from 
attending. Such is the Negro Sabbath. 

" There are also a numerous class of persons, such as 
domestics, cattle-boys, shepherds, watchmen, &c., who 
seldom, and, in many cases, who never, have an op- 
portunity of attending religious worship, or religious 
instruction of any kind — not to particularise the num- 
ber of slaves who, on sugar estates, are almost in- 
variably employed to a late hour on the Sabbath 
mornings in ' potting sugar,' and, consequently, de- 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



101 



barred from the public exercises of religion. Such is 
the Neofro Sabbath. 

" Following in the train of these evils, next comes the 
Sunday market, to which the young and the old, for 
miles around, resort to buy and sell, and barter their 
several commodities, consuming the entire day in going 
to and in returning from market, that they may dispose 
of their surplus provisions. Such is the Negro Sab- 
bath. 

" The law requiring the master to allow his slave at 
least twenty- six days in the year for the cultivation 
of his grounds, exclusive of the Sabbath — often, to 
suit his own purposes, the master takes that Sabbath 
from him, on which alone he could have had the op- 
portunity of receiving religious instruction^ repaying 
him with a week-day, without any such privilege. Such 
also is the Negro's Sabbath. 

" Thus the Negro has the semblance of a Sabbath : 
but it is such a Sabbath as leaves him no alternative 
but either to labour on his grounds on that day or 
starve ; such a Sabbath as his master may deprive him 
of, under the pretext of repaying him with another 
day (which it is believed he commonly does pay him) — 
such a Sabbath as, even when spent to the best advan- 
tage, leaves him but a partial share of the blessings 
which it was designed to convey, and without any 
remedy whereby to secure to himself and to his family 
its fullest enjoyment. 

" Now the Slave Code of Jamaica professedly designs 
to give the Negro a Sabbath — a full, complete, and 
an entire Sabbath, for rest, and for religious instruction. 
The preamble in the seventh clause of that act runs 
thus : — ' Whereas it is expedient to render the Sab- 
bath as much as possible a day of rest, and for 
religious worship^ The Jamaica legislature have 
expressed in these words all that is required —that the 
Sabbath should, as much as possible, be made a day 
of rest, and for religious instruction. But how, under 
such circumstances, does the possibility exist, whilst 
Sunday-marketing, Sunday-labouring, and the toil in- 
cident to their being often ovenvorked, preclude the 
slaves from attending public w^orship 7 In order to 

K 2 



102 



A MEMOIR OF 



make the Sabbath what it should be, three important 
changes are necessary to be effected : — The Negro to 
be allowed every Saturday throughout the year for the 
cultivation of his grounds — Sunday markets to be en- 
tirely abolished — and night-work on sugar-estates, that 
most deadly evil, to be altogether prohibited. A few 
individuals, more benevolent than others, have already 
effected the latter change, and found no reason to re- 
pent their having done so.*'' 

Secondly, The contrast here considered has respect 
to the labour performed by the AYest Indian slave as 
compared with the English peasant. I wish, for the 
sake of humanity, whether reigning or suffering, the 
following remarks could be shown to have their origin 
in either malice or mistake. They are extracted from 
" The Anti-Slavery Reporter," No. 82, which con- 
tains a review of the boasted manifesto of innocence, so 
lately signed by forty-one West Indian proprietorsy 
and very extensively circulated in England. 

" Taking the new law of Jamaica as a sample of 
the whole, both because it is a fair sample, and because 
its slave population is nearly equal to that of all the 
other colonies, what, on the showing of these forty-one 
gentlemen, is the state of the case ? The slaves, 
then, in Jamaica, as well as in most of the colonies, 
are compellable by law to labour in the field from five 
in the morning till seven at night, being fourteen 
hours a day, with intervals of two hours and a half, 
which still leave, even supposing them to be effective 
intervals, eleven hours and a half of field labour in 
each day, under the blaze of a tropical sun, which the 
planters may exact, and the slave must yield, on pain 
of the lash. Eleven hours and a half of compulsory 
labour in the fields during each day, the whole year 
round ! Was any thing like this exaction ever known, 
even in temperate climates? But then this is only the 
labour they may be actually compelled to perform in 
the field. The additional night labour of crop-time, 
to which there is no limit, is expressly excluded from 
the eleven hours and a half which may be consumed in 



THE REY. 



JOHN JENKINS. 



103 



field work. The night work of crop-time is over and 
above this, and may be estimated at five hours more, 
namely, from seven in the evening till midnight for half 
the gang, and from midnight to five in the morning 
for the other half, alternately. And this period of 
crop lasts for from four to six months in the year, 
according to circumstances. During these four, five, 
or six months, therefore, the slaves may be legally 
required to be actually employed in plantation labour 
for sixteen hours and a half out of the twenty-four." 
On this subject the Rev. Mr. Trew makes the follow- 
ing remarks : — 

" Of all the evils to which the Neo^ro is liable 
throughout the whole system of slavery, there is not a 
greater than this — night work on sugar estates. In 
proof of this let the reader only look at the facts to be 
found in a late return to Parliament of the average 
increase and decrease of slaves for the five preceding 
years to 1828, on the principal properties in Jamaica, 
distinguishing coffee and other plantations from the 
sugar estates. We find, from these returns, one sugar 
estate with 663 slaves, on which there has been an 
average annual decrease of ten. On another, with 
242 slaves, a decrease of fifteen ; and on a third, called 
Blue Mountain, a still more fearful waste of human 
life is discovered, in an average decrease of seventeen 
Negroes annually out of 314 ; — or eighty-five slaves, 
being equal to one fifth of the whole population, cut 
off in the space of five years ! The estates of the 
heirs of John Thorp, situated in the parish of Tre- 
lawny, show a diminution of numbers within the same 
period amounting to 200, out of a population of 2809r 
But on the coffee plantations, where night- work is 
unknown, mark the contrast : on a plantation having 
214 slaves, the average increase for five years is three 
per cent, per annum; and, taking an extensive parish, 
the staple commodity of which is coffee, the average 
increase throughout is not less than three per cent, per 
annum. Can there be a more convincing proof of the 
shocking waste to which human life is subject on sugar 
estates (and owing mainly to the system of night- work) 



104 



A MEMO 1 11 OF 



than this ? And yet to such a system must the man of 
grey hairs, or the mother of a numerous offspring, 
after toiling throughout the day under the scorching 
beams of a tropical sun, submit ; and again be exposed 
to the bleak north wind, to the chilling mists of 
heaven, or to the pelting rain; and, when overtaken 
with sleep, to lie down faint and weary, and at the risk 
of a heavy punishment, under the great canopy of 
heaven, without another comforter save Him who 
pities the oppressed." 

" Out of crop, in most cases, a regular part of the 
duty of the field-slaves, after they have left the field 
{that is, after seven o'clock at night), is to employ 
themselves in collecting fodder* for the horses and 
cattle on the plantation, and in bringing it to an ap- 
pointed place, to be inspected and duly deposited, 
before they are finally dismissed for the night." 
The following is the manner in which Dr. Collins, an 
old West Indian planter, speaks of it : — ' The picking 
of grass, in situations where it is most abundant, is a 
labour more felt and regretted by the Negroes than 
others much more severe.' Again he says, ' the 
neglect of grass-picking is another frequent cause of 
punishment. On some estates it draws more stripes 
upon the Negroes than all the other offences put 
together, as the lash seldom lies idle while the grass- 
roll is calling over.' ' As it is to be performed when 
the Negroes are retired from the field, and no longer 
under the eye of the overseer or driver, it is apt to be 
neglected. Besides, it encroaches much on the time 
allotted to their own use, and, even after they have with 
much trouble picked their bundles, they are frequently 
stolen from them by other Negroes; and their excuses, 
however just, are seldom admitted to extenuate their 
fault.' The whip, he adds, ' is too intemperately 
employed' on this as on other occasions. The misfor- 
tune is, the whip is always at hand, and therefore 
supplies the readiest means of punishing ; for the 

* Hay is not made in the West Indian Islands. Straggling 
grass is therefore collected, or what is called Guinea-grass cut, 
in bundles every night for the cattle. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS, 



105 



overseer, having such a summary mode of balancing 
offences, never thinks of any other,' 

Thirdly, The letter which has occasioned these 
remarks alludes to punishment. It is not contended 
that the English peasant is beaten," much less as an 
incentive to labour, but that, by good conduct, the 
Negroes may generally avoid it. We will hear a few 
witnesses on this subject, who had seen more of West 
Indian affairs than brother Jenkins, and whose testi- 
monies will show that his letter to his friend is chiefly 
remarkable as it presents an amiable specimen of that 
" charity" which " thinketh no evil." We know, 
however, that facts obliged him to moderate his senti- 
ments on this subject. We have seen the opinion of 
Dr. Collins, a medical man of long experience in St. 
Vincent, a slave-proprietor, and an advocate of the 
system ; and the following remarks are from the 
" Observations relating to the West Indian Islands," 
published by Dr. Williamson. The writer claims for 
them all the regard which is due to them as coming 
from one who was an advocate of slavery, and who 
"spent nearly fourteen years in a large scene of practice 
affording ample opportunities for observation among 
all colours of the inhabitants of Jamaica." I wish the 
facts were as questionable as the correctness of the 
language in which they are related. 

" It is deeply to be lamented that such is the dis- 
position of Negroes, and so great their proneness to 
crimes, that it is impossible to dispense with that 
power to punish which is consigned to the judgment 
and discretion of overseers. The estimation which 
every British subject feels for his inherent privileges 
should cherish corresponding sentiments of sympathy 
for our fellow-creatures in a state of greater dege- 
neracy. It would be more consistent with every prin- 
ciple of character we should be ambitious to retain as 
Britons, to learn that universal sympathy and kindness 
were observed by us towards that unlucky (unlucky !) 
race of people ; but it is due to truths and to those 
expectations which constitute in a great degree the 



106 



A MEMOIR OF 



objects of this work, to declare, that amendment is in 
some instances loudly called for; — that, by pro- 
prietors and attorneys, it is necessary to say too much 
is placed in the overseers' hands. I know that in 
general their own dispositions to prevent improper 
punishment are sincere ; but, as it is wise in the army 
to conduct punishments as they are done, it is still 
more necessary not to arm an overseer with powers 
which it would be unwise to place in the hands of an 
officer commanding a refx-iment in his majesty's army. 

" The mind of the Negro is not ennobled hj those 
sensations which a state of freedom conveys ; his 
movements to perform laborious task proceed from 
coercion and the dread of punishment. We are not to 
expect his laborious pursuits to be carried on from a 
regard to his master, but from a fear of punishment. 
Remuneration is even inadequate to procure his exer- 
tions, 

" When punishment is inflicted by flogging, the 
limits should be extended at no time beyond the num- 
ber of thirty-nine lashes ; which the overseer, or other 
superintendent, is only empowered to inflict by the 
letter of the law. It cannot, however, be denied that 
this limitation is often outdone ; and, by repeatedly 
punishing offenders, the parts become insensible to that 
laceration which tears the skin. When that barbarous 
consequence is arrived at, it^ infliction becomes a 
matter of indifference to the unfortunate Negro ; and 
new sources of torture must be found out by which the 
commission of crime may be checked. It can scarcely 
be necessary to add that such a torpor, in the parts to 
which punishment has been applied, can never be jus- 
tified on any pretext ; and I blush to reflect that white 
men should be the directors of such disgraceful deeds. 

" Opinions have been given that it would be well 
altogether to do away the possession of a large heavy 
whip* from the driver's hands ; and whether we con- 
sider the frightful sound which reaches our ears every 
minute in passing through estates by the crack of the 

* For a description of this terrible instrument, and the effect 
with which it can be applied, so as to cut through the tough 
hide of a mule at a single stroke," see Godwin, pp. 15 — 17. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



107 



lash, or the power with which the drivers are provided 
to exercise punishment, it would be equally desirable 
that such a weapon of arbitrary and unjust authority 
were taken away from them. It is at present cus- 
tomary to crack the whip, to turn out the gang at 
stated hours to the field [in which case it answers the 
purfK)se of a bell, or of a horn, which in the West 
Indies is generally made of a large sea-shell.] When 
the Negro seems to be tardy at his work, the driver 
sounds the lash near to him, or lets him feel it, as he 
thinks proper on the occasion. The necessary signals 
for turning out, and the application of it in the field, 
might be supplied by means less objectionable; while 
an impression unfavourable made in the country upon 
the passenger, who is probably a stranger, is horrible 
indeed. 

" However much it is the wish of proprietors and 
attorneys of estates to condemn every step which has 
a tendency to bear down that description of Negro 
incapable of the usual labour of healthy Negroes, it is 
too true that due consideration is not sometimes given 
to this branch of good management ; and on that 
account the interests of proprietors* are sacrificed to 
a barbarous policy. On estates, this fault is not so 
commonly observed as in jobbing gangs ; but in both 
the crime is equally culpable and inimical to their true 
line of policy. 

" Every consideration, therefore, of humanity and 
policy points out that the frequent infliction of the 
heavy whip, to cut up and lacerate severely, is incon- 
sistent with those characteristics which should belong 
to any man entrusted with the management of Ne- 
groes — that extreme punishment, if awarded, should 
be only admitted in cases of aggravated crime ; and it 
would be well, even under these circumstances, not to 
inflict it on the single opinion of an individual. Cer- 
tain it is, as has already been stated in the narrative, 
that those overseers who resort to the lash least have 
uniformly the best governed gangs. It is at least an 

• The poor Negro is supposed to have but little, if any, in- 
terest in his own existence, and therefore the interests of the 
proprietor" are very feelingly pleaded ! ! 



108 



A MEMOIR OF 



incontrovertible fact that a wisely -directed authority 
will seldom require it. The use of it, therefore, to a 
great extent may be given up. 

" By abandoning the severity of punishments, as it 
is proved they may be, unless in cases of very aggra- 
vated transgression, the condition of Negroes will be 
immensely improved, whether we view them as being 
enabled to labour more effectually, or if we take them 
in their general appearance. A Negro subjected to 
frequent and severe punishment has an appearance 
and manner by which he is easily known. If in a 
warm day we pass by a gang when they are un- 
covered behind, it is a reproach to every white man to 
observe in them the recently -lacerated sores, or the 
deep furrows, which, though healed up, leave the 
marks of cruel punishment. If the management of 
Negroes can be conducted without such unperishing 
testimonials of uncalled-for cruelty, let not future 
crimes thus disgrace us ; and let our future humanity 
towards them compensate for the past."* 

This work was published in 1817, and yet how far 
are these suggestions from being regarded. By the 
moderated code, so much the subject of boast by the 
forty-one gentlemen above alluded to, in their mani- 
festo, a black man+ may inflict ten lashes with this 
horrid instrument. The following is a quotation from 
their boasted document curiously placed under the 
title, And, in order to restrain arbitrary punish- 
ments:^'' — '*No slave shall receive more than ten lashes, 
except in presence of owner or overseer ; nor in such 
presence more than thirty-nine in one day, nor until 
recovered from former punishment, under penalty of 
£20." This is boasted of as a part of a recent enact- 
ment, and it applies to the island of Jamaica ! 

But the most abominable part of this power of arbi- 
trary punishment still remains to be told : it is the 
power which it gives to every brute of a black driver^ 
or white overseer (and there are brutes of both colours)^ 

* Dr. WiUiamson's Observations," pp. 219—226 of Vol. II. 
t The driver. There are no white Negro drivers,'' as some 
English people suppose. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



109 



to expose and flog- the females. On this subject facts 
and delicacy have been so much at variance that the 
public are but very imperfectly informed on the sub- 
ject : and justice, and mercy, and even decency, have 
been sacrificed at the shrine of mammon. A few 
writers, however, have lately determined that the truth 
shall be known : and let those w^hose deeds give occa- 
sion to such relations as they have given, and not the 
historians of their indecent barbarities, hide their heads 
in shame. The work of the present writer is in these 
cases merely that of a transcriber ; for in all these 
cases he prefers giving the testimony of others to his 
own. Were a West Indian, however, to ask him if he 
believed the following accounts, he would reply by 
another question, — Sir, do you doubt them?" and he 
believes that his knowledge of the manner in which 
affairs are frequently conducted in that country would 
supersede a reply : for such a man must know that 
indecent barbarities are such common-place matters, in 
that country, that when the question is, Have >such 
cases really occurred, or have clergymen forged these 
relations ? the reply is not a difficult one. The follow- 
insT extracts are from the Rev. ]Mr. Trew's letters, 
above referred to : — 

Of all the abuses which have ever existed in any 
^country, and particularly in the management of slaves, 
there never has been one calling more loudly for 
redress than this of punishment. It has been attempted 
to palliate or to defend the prevalence of this practice, 
by the existence of corporal punishment in the British 
army ; and arguments have been adduced in support 
of the continuance of such a system by the analog-y 
subsisting between them. But the cases of the soldier 
and of the slave are widely different. The one volun- 
tarily enters the service of his country, and receives a 
supposed equivalent as the condition upon which he 
sacrifices his liberty to the will of others. The other 
is torn from his home, compelled to labour against his 
will without hire, and to submit to laws to which he is 
bound by the heaviest penalties to give an unconditional 
assent. There is also this difference to be observed in 

L 



no 



A MEMOIR OF 



the circumstances of the parties, — whatever be the 
punishment of the soldier, that punishment cannot be 
inflicted upon him at the arbitrary dictum of an indi- 
vidual ; he is fairly and impartially tried, and that by 
m*en without passion or prejudice, -and whose honour 
as soldiers, and whose humanity as men, are both con- 
cerned in their verdict. But not so the slave. The 
law gives his master — or any man, however base, to 
whom his master may delegate that power — an autho- 
rity the most arbitrary, and almost absolute, over him. 
He may, as often as his anger, or caprice, or revenge 
dictates, and without any previous trial, or even (if such 
a man could be found) w ithout assigning any reason, 
inflict upon his person with a common cart-whip, 
thirty-nine lashes — not nnfrequently to be "brushed out 
with ebonies," or, in other words, to be lacerated by 
thorns, whilst his wounds, yet bleeding from the inflic- 
tion of the former punishment, are open to receive 
them. It is no libel upon the planters to state these 
facts ; for, however humane and merciful as individuals 
they may be, here is a power which no man living 
should possess over his fellow-creature, but which at 
this very hour is entrusted to the West Indian planter. 
And especially when it is considered that both the 
quantum and the mode of punishment devolves upon 
overseers, a class of men possessing no interest in the 
slaves beyond a mere stipendiary allowance, receivable 
at the caprice of his employer. In the heat of pas- 
sion, or on the impulse of the moment, he may, without 
taking time to weigh the circumstances or the merits 
of the case, command the slave to be laid down with 
his face to the earth, and in the most summary and 
cruel manner flog him, as he would not do, though 
restive, his own pampered steed. Surely it cannot be 
reconcilable with the due administration of justice — 
surely it cannot tend to maintain the peace or the 
stability of the colonies, neither can it operate as a 
moral stimulus to the slave to demean himself sub- 
missively in his present condition — that such monstrous 
power should be confided to men who, if they abuse it 
not, yet have, unquestionably, many strong tempta- 
tions to do so. Let the Negro be taught to respect 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



Ill 



the laws; let him, whilst slavery has a being, and even 
when it shall have ceased to exist, be made amenable 
to what is right and proper ; but, having taught him 
first what his rights are, then secure to him, against 
violence and against outrage, the full and the impartial 
enjoyment of those rights, and thus raise him above 
the level of the brute, which by British enactment is 
secured by laws and penalties from the wanton bar- 
barity of its oppressors. How paradoxical, that in one 
happy portion of the king of England's dominions, 
a man may not cruelly abuse his ass, and yet in another 
portion of the very same possession (oh lamentable 
fact !) man may with impunity, and as spleen or pas- 
sion governs him, so despotically lord it over his fellow- 
man, that his life has not unfrequently been the sacri- 
fice to this demon of vengeance. Justice, reason, and 

humanity, all cry aloud for the redress of this abuse. 
« « « ^ 

" It has been said, and I beheve justly too, that few 
soldiers, after the disgrace of once receiving corporal 
punishment, have ever after been able to hold up their 
heads amongst their companions in arms ; that they 
have, after such an exposure, become either heart- 
broken, or indifferent to their future condition. And 
so it is with the slave. Punishment brutalizes, and 
sinks the already barbarous still lower in the scale of 
wretchedness. It fails to operate as an incentive to 
industry, and consequently it fails in producing the 
effects which are expected from it. Should it, how- 
ever, prove a means of doing so, the effects are tran- 
sient, and leading more frequently to the repetition 
of the same system^f punishment than to any happier 
result. It hardens the heart — deadens all the finer 
feelings of the creature — and, if it excite not the slave 
to any acts of open or secret revenge, its natural tend- 
ency is such as to extinguish that confidence, and 
kindly intercourse and feeling, which under other cir- 
cumstances will be found to exist, and to promote in 
the Negro's breast a hatred of his oppressor, and a 
watchfulness that he may in every pursuit gain the 
advantage over him. Hence it happens that, amongst 
the more refractory Negroes, punishment from the 



112 



A MEMOIR OF 



lash is ever preferred to solitary confinement ; for, 
having no character to lose, they prefer that species of 
punishment the endurance of v^hich is soonest at an 
end. 

" But, if these observations should have any weight 
when the subject of punishment is treated of in a 
general way, how much more loudly will it not be 
found to demand the interference of the legislators 
when the case of females is particularly adverted to? 
It were sad enough to think that such a system of 
punishment could be tolerated in the case of men, but 
doubly so when it is considered that women likewise 
are subject to it, under circumstances of the most 
shameful indecency. The young and the aged^ 
mothers of families, and even those whose hoary locks 
proclaim length of years, are openly, and in the 
presence of the other sex, doomed to the endurance of 
this disgraceful abuse. Yes ; were it not that I had 
rather* see the evil corrected by the strong hand of 
power, on the ground of its barbarous and unchristian 
tendency, than from the exposure of some of its many 
enormities, I could point out some of the most astound- 
ing facts bearing upon this point, and that would har- 
row up the soul of any individual not yet past feeling. 
But I shall be content at present, without entering inta 
a minute detail, with merely hinting at the factUhat 
the unhappy female, even at that season when nature 
puts in her claim to more than common sympathy, is 
often doomed to suffer from the unrelenting lash; and^ 
in some cases, with an aggravation of wrong, such as^ 
were I to repeat, no reader of these letters would 
credit. But it remains to raise the poor sable slave 
from the depth of her degradation ; for I am persuaded 
you will allow that every stroke inflicted upon her sinks 
her lower in the scale of being. She may be a 
mother ; and what will her children say, as she returns 
to them bleeding in sorrow ? And her husband too ! — 
if the black man have a heart — oh ! how will it 
beat, and rise, and swell with indignation, against 
the cowardly dishonour done to the partner of 
his bed ! The wonder is that nature's feelings can 
be bound and enslaved as the body is, when every 



THE RET, JOHN JENKINS. 



113 



spring in man's affections is impelled to burst the 
barrier and to avenge the wrong. What a conflict 
must there be between revenge and fear, as the hus- 
band, in silent sorrow (for he dare not give utterance 
to what is passing within), contemplates the scene:* 
and what a lesson do the children learn, ]jut to dese- 
crate the wretch that made a mother weep. I know 
not a more bitter drop in the whole cup of slavery than 
this. 

But it is vauntingly said by some that when they 
punish the female slave the whip is not used, and that 
rods only, or ebonies, are substituted for it. And what 
of this ? Is there not the same scandalous exposure of 
the person of the female ? — and is there not only this 
difference between them that, if the wounds are not so 
deep, they are yet more abundant ? But it is not the 
fact that even rods are generally adopted in the 
punishment of females. There may be, and there are, 
a few isolated cases, where some persons, from huma- 
nity, but many more from a view to their ovv n interests, 
and that they may be thought humane, have adopted 
this plan. But in general the female slave knows no 
difference from the opposite sex, either as to the man- 
ner or the quantum of punishment he receives. I 
have heard of seme, however, who, by way of en- 
couraging marriages amongst their slaves, have added 
this privilege, amongst others, to such persons, that a 
female, when once married, should afterw^ards be 
exempt from punishment. On one estate, where the 
practice is said to prevail, the following illustration of 
the pertinacity with which the right was defended took 
place: — A married woman, a slave, having been 
remiss in some department of her labour, the driver, 
also a Negro, was proceeding as usual to administer 
summary correction, when the female resisted. The 
driver called others to his assistance, no doubt in- 
tending to give her a double portion, when the woman, 
boiling with anger, could do little more than point to 
one of her finorers. There was her marriaofe-rinor : 
and, restmg her finger upon it, she dared the driver to 



* See Ashton^s Xarrative, p. 45. 

L 2 



114 



A MEMOIR OF 



proceed. ' Hei ! me da married woman — first take off 
dis, and den flog me.' The driver was compelled to 
abandon his whip, and seek for some other mode of 
redress. 

" Little has been said in this letter as to the quantum 
of punishment, as that subject has been so often dwelt 
upon. It is enough for my present purpose briefly to 
direct attention to the number of stripes — to the person 
inflicting them — and to the instrument by which they 
are inflicted. The law prescribes thirty«nine stripes as 
the maximum of punishment. This, when contrasted 
with military usage, will by some be considered not 
excessive : but mark the instrument — a whip, the lash 
of which is from nine to twelve feet in length, wielded 
by a powerful arm, well skilled in the management of 
it ; so much so that by the sound of the whip the 
Negro is commonly roused to pursue his daily toil, 
the woods resounding with the echo. This instrument, 
also, is not unfrequently in the hand of a person in 
v/hose breast revenge or jealousy may exist, which 
serves to nerve the arm that holds it. It has been at- 
tempted to be shown by some that the drivers are in 
general men who are advanced in years — rather to be 
distinguished by their venerable locks than by their 
austere countenances ; but this is not the fact. The 
driver is commonly an able-bodied Negro ; and, from 
his office and habits, too frequently possessing less of 
the milk of human kindness than other men : dressed 
in a little brief authority, he feels the full" weight of 
an oflice which enjoins upon him the execution of all 
his master's commands, whether those commands may 
be agreeable to his own natural feelings or not. The 
orders which he receivei? are conclusive and peremp- 
tory : whatever stands in the way of their accomplish- 
ment it is for him to remove by the strong arm of 
power, or be himself removed from his office, followed 
by disgrace and punishment. There will be cases, no 
doubt, where the character of the driver will be other- 
wise than is here represented. Instances have been 
known of their expressing an abhorrence of punish- 
ment, and anxiously enquiring how they could, with a 
sense of duty to their masters, be spared the painful 



THE REV. JOHN JE5KINS. 



115 



predicament of enforcing it : but such, it is presumed, 
are of rare occurrence ; and it commonly happens, but 
especially amongst those whose minds have not yet 
been civilized by the peaceful effects of Christianity, 
that the driver will be found ready for all work, and 
more commonly converting his office into an engine 
for the exercise of the most arbitrary power, and using 
it for the purpose of gratifying the worst passions of 
his nature, rather than that he may administer in the 
smallest degree towards befriending his brother in ad- 
versity : he lords it over his fellow-men, and rules with 
a rod of iron the weak and the helpless, whose wretched- 
ness of body and of estate can furnish no pander to the 
gratification of his appetites. But slavery were a lot 
hard enough to bear without superadding to its misery 
the absolute rule of so many masters." 

The following heart-rending accounts of the manner 
in which morality is occasionally hazarded, by the 
power of arbitrarily punishing both male and female 
slaves, show the horrid state to which it debases the 
mind : they also are taken from Mr. Trew's letters : — 

" Pending the examination of vv^itnesses, in a com- 
mittee of the Jamaica House of Assembly a few years 
ago, on the subject of Negro evidence, a question was 
put on oath by the chairman, Mr. Reynolds (one of 
the most indefatigable supporters of the Negro's 
claims), to a reverend gentleman then under examina- 
tion, to this effect: — ' Have you ever known an in- 
stance in which the ends of public justice have been 
defeated through the inadmissibility of Negro evi- 
dence?' The answer was — ' I have.' The individual 
was then called upon to state the particulars of it ; 
which he did, nearly as follows : — ' In the parish 
where I reside the following case was lately brought 
before the Council of Protection, and came under my 
own immediate observation. A white man, the owner 
of a small plantation, sought to seduce from the path 
of virtue a young woman of colour, the natural child 
of Ms own father^ but a slave. The girl, taught by 
her mother (who had been instructed by the mis- 
sionaries in the fundamental truths of religion) the sin- 



116 



A MEMOIR OF 



fulness of an act which would be rendered doubly 
heinous by the relative situation of the parties, refused 
to listen to his solicitations. The monster (for the 
name of a man can hardly be assigned to him) placed 
the girl in the stocks, and renewed his entreaties. 
This, however, produced no other effect on the mind 
of the unhappy female than to induce her more 
strenuously than ever to resist his importunities. At 
last, as a dernier ressort, fl ogging was had recourse to, 
and the poor prisoner was most unmercifully punished. 
But every artifice that villany could contrive was in 
vain. Virtue triumphed over vice, and the poor girl 
was finally released froxn her confinement. On re- 
gaining her liberty, the first use she made of it was to 
apply to a magistrate ; who, shocked at the cruelty of 
the treatment she had received, and to his own credit, 
summoned a Council of Protection forthwith to hear 
her story. It was simple, and well authenticated ; but 
it was the story of a slave. Gladly would the Council 
of Protection have punished the monster ; for the mem- 
bers of it were fully persuaded of the truth of the girl's 
statements ; but the law forbade them : and thus, not 
only was justice impeded, but guilt of the most ap- 
palling and aggravated character suffered to escape.' 
What terms are sufficiently strong to mark the detesta- 
tion of' every rational man to a case like this ? — to 
which it were impossible to find a parallel, but in the 
annals of slavery. And yet this part of the evidence 
taken before the Committee of the Jamaica Assembly 
does not appear on the face of their printed minutes; 
and, on enquiring why it was not reported, I am in- 
formed that a discussion arose in the committee as to 
the propriety of expunging this part of the evidence : 
and that it was expunged from the minutes accordingly 
— a member at the same time observing, ' Are we 
not cutting a rod to break our own heads V Thus, 
through the inadmissibility of slave evidence, may the 
most abandoned and profligate acts be perpetrated 
with impunity, against the person of the slave, by any 
free man ; and though it were even carried to the very 
utmost limits of human barbarity, and though death 
itself were to be the issue of the event, still the cul- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



117 



prit is accountable to no earthly tribunal, though the 
act were verified by the oath of one hundred slaves. 

" But a further proof may be adduced of the necessity 
for the immediate admission of the testimony of slaves ; 
it is to be found in the report of a late trial, in the 
island of Jamaica, of sundry slaves for the murder of 
their master. The case is reported at length in the 
Jamaica Public Advertiser of September last. The 
editor, when noticing the subject, pertinently remarks, 
' This day's paper contains a report of a trial for 
murder. Rarely has a case of such extreme atrocity 
come before the public of Jamaica. The deceased 
was a free person of colour. He was a married man. 
The cold-blooded, revolting murder, was perpetrated 
in the presence of a crowd of slaves ; and, as is charged 
by the moral evidence of the slaves, who were executed^ 
some free people w^ere accomplices ; and, horrid to re- 
late, one (his oivn wife) was a witness of the deed, 
and incited to the crime : — but we will go no farther.' 
It appears, from the report of this trial, that the 
master of these slaves was a man overwhelmed in 
debt ; and that the sheriff's officer or marshal had in 
his possession sundry writs for the seizure of his chat- 
tels. His wife and family, from what reason it does 
not appear, formed a design against his life ; and, in 
order to effect their horrid purpose, they set to work 
upon the minds of the slaves, saying that, if their 
master should survive beyond a certain day, they would 
be seized by the sheriff's officer, and themselves and 
their families sold, and perhaps separated for ever. 
The plot succeeded ; and the unfortunate slaves, mad- 
dened by the anticipation of a final bereavement of 
all that earth held dear to them, perpetrated the cruel 
deed. Justice, however, speedily overtook them : they 
were tried, condemned, and executed. At the place 
of suffering, the unhappy men, when placed on the 
scaffold, declared that, during the time of the murder, 
the mistress and. her sons ivere prese/it, walking" up 
and down in the piazza ; and that when their master 
awoke from his sleep, crying, ' help ! help V the same 
persons were engaged in encouraging the Negroes 
(having previously given them rum to drink), telling 



118 



A MEMOIR OF 



them to seize their master ; and that they seized and 
murdered him accordingly. But the concluding testi- 
mony of these dying men remains yet to be noticed ; 
and truly it is most appalling. Just as they were 
about being launched into the eternal world, they 
spoke as follows to the surrounding multitude : — ' Tell 
massa, thanky — tell him thanky. Tell misses, and 
old missis, thanky — for do them bring us to this. 
Do them bring us here. Them cheat we. Them 
say we must kill massa, else them would punish us, 
and marshal would take and sell every one of we. 
But we pray every body to pray God to forgive 
them.' " 

The following are extracts from a periodical publi- 
cation, edited, I understand, by clergymen^ in the 
island of Jamaica: — 

" Corporal Punishment of Slaves. 
We maintain that the right itself is iniquitous^ 
and the use made of it tyrannical and oppressive ; and, 
in support of this assertion, we will describe, as far as 
decency will allow us, the practice which generally 
prevails] in the exercise of it. We do so in hopes that 
the painful and disgusting truth may have its effect in 
arousing just abhorrence in the breasts of some, who, 
never having had the subject exhibited to them in its 
native hideousness, are not aware of its aggravated 
turpitude, and may thus lead, ultimately, to the total 
removal of this terrible power of punishment from the 
hands of individuals, and, immediately, to the soften- 
ing of some of the harsher features it presents. 

" In families resident in the country, the unfortunate 
domestic slave, when offending, is committed for 
chastisement into the hands of an upper servant, who 
ties him to the nearest tree, and handles the weapon 
of torture,* — or he is ' sent to the works,' with a 
command to the overseer to punish. In towns, the 
household servant, when correction is deemed needful, 

* The common instrument of domestic punishment is " the 
cow-skin.' ' This is a slip of green cow-hide twisted, and allowed 
to drj in this posture. It forms a rugged, pliant, tapering instru- 
ment, about a yard long, and is very severe. 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



119 



receives it from a fellow-servant in an out-ofBce ; or is 
hurried to the v^orkhouse, and there stretched on the 
ground, and the person shamelessly exposed. Thirty- 
nine stripes, it may be, are inflicted on him by a 
powerful ' boatswain,' armed with a knotted scourge, 
whose every stroke causes the blood to start from the 
unhappy victim. — The law stipulates for no age or 
sex. Nay, the pregnant female is not by law exempted. 
— One would have thought that our legislators, moved 
by the common feelings of our nature, would have 
interposed the protecting arm of the law to shield the 
female, when thus situated, from the brutal force of 
man. But no — even she can be laid down, exposed, 
and flogged, in the presence of the assembled popula- 
tion of the estate ! It is true that public feeling, in 
this case more merciful than the law, has, in a great 
measure, shielded the pregnant woman known to be 
such ; but still instances of such barbarity, we believe, 
too often happen ; ruining the unfortunate woman's 
health, and destroying the unborn child. 

" The whip, then, we assert to be the chief stimulus 
to labour, and almost the only instrument for main- 
taining rule among the slaves in this island. By it the 
peasant is hastened to his daily toil. It urges him to 
exertion, should he flag during the hours of labour. It 
is the dreadful means of keeping him in implicit sub- 
mission," and the petty tyrant of the day cannot 
condescend to reason with a slave, or treat him as a 
rational being,"] too frequently at the expense of 
truth and consistency ; and, lastly, should the peevish- 
ness of human nature prompt [the slave] to impatience 
or insolence, pregnancy itself not always proves a 
protection, but even then it sometimes descends upon 
the hapless victim to weaken and destroy. In these 
observations we contend that we have been describing 
the general and the prevailing practice of the island ; 
and, in proof of this assertion, we can adduce the re- 
marks that we often, nay, we may say, almost con- 
stantly hear, when in the society of the planters. 

Such as, ' Why did Mr. leave ? He was 

managing the estate well.' ' So he was ; but then he 
half killed the people.' — * And Mr. has left , 



120 



A MEMOIR OF 



and gone to . Well, he is so capital a planter that 

he is never out of a birth [berth] — although he is such 
a savage to the Negroes.' ' But why does not his at- 
torney check his doings V ' Oh ! he does not interfere 
with him.' ' Mr. is an excellent planting at- 

torney, but a great disciplinarian. They say, when he 
was an overseer, he kicked a Negro into a well, and 
would not allow him to be taken out. — He is none of 
your shillyrshally fellows.' ' A Negro had better not 

make his fun with , or he will soon have him tied 

to a ladder, and put a couple of drivers upon him.'* 

" The evil of corporal punishment is also shown, in 
a very painful way, to every friend to the spread of 
Christianity. We allude to the effect it produces in 
respect to marriage. It consists with our knowledge 
that the slaves have preferred concubinage to mar- 
riage, on the ground that their wives might be inde- 
cetitly exposed and flogged. And here it is to be 
observed, in explanation and support of this statement, 
that slaves, however licentious they may be, regard 
the marriage tie with a reverence and respect ap- 
proaching to superstitious. With whatever indifference 
they may regard the degradation of a concubine^ we 
know that they look with horror on the degradation of 
a wife. Again, what kind of feeling can be expected 
to exist in the mind of a child who witnesses the 
shameless punishment of a parent ? Filial respect 
must be weakened, if not altogether destroyed. And 
must not the feelings of the parent who is constrained 
to witness the miserable sufferings of a child, if not 
hardened into criminal indifference, be exquisitely 
painful? While we are on this part of our subject, 
we cannot avoid recounting, as a proof that these 
things are not chimeras of a distempered imagination, 
but sad realities of truth and experience, the particu- 

* To * tie to a ladder,' means to tie the victim's hands and feet 
to the ladder, and thus stretch the body at length, with the face 
downwards. * Put a couple of drivers upon him, or her,' is a 
colloquial method of ordering a driver to be placed on each side 
of the slave, to strike alternately. Such expressions as are here 
given are the common chit-chat of planters, and this is, in every 
country, the surest index of the state of the heart. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



121 



lars of an instance of corporal punishment recently 
inflicted, in one of our workhouses, by order of the 
magistrates.* It has been communicated to us by a 
high witness, on whose veracity we can stake our own 
credit ; and truly it reflects indelible disgrace on the 
community. Be it understood, however, that we in- 
troduce this statement, not in illustration of the main 
subject of this article, viz. the dangerous power of in- 
flicting corporal punishment, entrusted by law to pri- 
vate individuals, but in proof that the shameless and 
unnatural exposure of the parents' nakedness to the 
child, and vice versa, are no uncommon occurrences in 
our island. A memorandum was taken by our in- 
formant, soon after witnessing the scene which he 
describes, of which the following is nearly a verbatim 
copy. We omit names ; but our informant authorized 

us to supply them if required. , a femaie^-cap- 

parently about twenty-two years of age, was then^^ 
down with her face downwards ; her w rists were se-^- 
cured by cords run through nooses ; her ancles were 
brought together, and placed in another noose ; the 
cord composing the last one passed through a block, 
connected with a post. The cord was tightened, and 
the young woman was thus stretched at her utmost 
length. A female then advanced, and raised her 
clothes towards her head, leaving her person inde- 
cently exposed. The boatswain of the workhouse, a 
tall athletic man, flourished his whip four or five times 
round his head, and proceeded with the punishment. 
The instrument of punishment Vv^as a cat, formed of 
knotted cords. The blood sprang from the wounds it 
inflicted. The poor creature shrieked in agony, and 
exclaimed, ' I don't deserve this !' She fainted, and 
became hysterical, and continued so until the punish- 
ment was completed. Four other delinquents were 
successively treated in the same way. One was a 
- woman, about thirty-six years of age — another a girl 

* Tliese workhouse inflictions do not always, or in general, 
imply magisterial conviction. Slave-owners, in towns, frequently 
send their domestic slaves there to be punished, because, having 
no estates, they have not a driver at command to inflict the 
punishment. 

M 



122 



A MEMOIR OF 



of fifteen — another a boy of the same age ; and, lastly, 
an OLD WOMAN OF ABOUT SIXTY, who really appeared 
scarcely to have strength to express her agonies in 
cries.' The boy of fifteen, as our informant subse- 
quently ascertained, was the son of the woman of 
thirty-six ! She was indecently exposed and flogged 
in the presence of her son ! and then had the addi- 
tional pain to see him also exposed, and made to 
writhe under the lash ! — too bad ! It is to be ob- 
served, to complete the hideous, but faithful picture, 
of the system of slave government presented to us by 
the narrative of this transaction, that these unfortu- 
nates received this punishment for an offence which 
their owner, it was strongly suspected, had compelled 
them to commit, and that too under the lash — a cir- 
cumstance accounting for the cry, ' I don't deserve 
this!'* 

" Painful and melancholy as is the above detail, we 
know it to be too faithful a picture of what is trans- 
acted from week to week, by order of the magistrates, 
within those abodes of human misery, the workhouses 
of our island.""f 

This is the way in which the slaves of our West 
India colonies are " beaten ;" and, had Mr. Jenkins 
seen as much evidence of it as he afterwards possessed, 
he would not have made so light of it in his letter to 
his friend ; nor would he have considered the state of 
the slave of the West Indies so enviable as compared 
with that of the English peasant. The author knows 

* The circumstances, as related hj a Mr. T., in a preyious 
No. of '^The Christian Record,'^ are: — these Negroes had been 
sent, under at least the dread of punishment, to pick grass for 
their mistress's stock, though she had none on her estate ; and, 
being found picking it on the estate of some other person, they 
were delivered over to the magistrates, their misnamed ''pro- 
tectors," to enquire into the affair ; but, without any enquiry, they 
were sent to be thus chastised for their offence. Enquiry, indeed, 
was useless; for if it were true, as appears to have been the cnse, 
that they were sent by their mistress, it was a fact of which 
nothing but slave-evidence could be produced, and this by law 
was not admissible against her, though it was against her Negroes. 
Here originates the great difficulty of arriving at legal proof of 
most of the abominations of slavery. 

t Jamaica '* Christian Record" for October, 1830, pp. 76 — 82. 



THE REY. JOHN JEXKIXS. 



123 



a parish in which a transaction happened that affords 
the happiest contrast with the unprotected state of the 
West India female slave. It was as follows : — A 
father was transported for smuggling, and his family 
became chargeable on the parish. His daughters 
were taken to the dernier ressort of English innocent 
degradation, the poor-house. They offended the 
parish authorities, and, as a punishment, were ordered 
to cut off their curls ! They refused ; and the gentle- 
men inflicted the punishment in j^roprid persona. This 
circumstance, however, became known, and some of 
the friends of these orii'ls entered an action ao-ainst 
their reputed oppressors ; and, after an expensive law- 
suit, they were cast in damages, which it is believed 
have cured them of their propensity for cropping : 
and the reproaches of the community have been added 
to the sentence of the court, and they are likely long 
to endure the desio-nation of " the barbers The 
case, then, is simply this. An English pauper cannot 
be deprived of her curls at the arbitrary interference 
of the parish authorities ; but the female slave of the 
West Indies may be exposed and flogged, w^ithout 
either judge or jury, to the extent of the dictates of 
any dominant barbarian. And this power thus to 
punish is as tenaciously held as if the existence of the 
owner depended upon it. The subject of female 
flogging was recently debated in the House of As- 
sembly in Jamaica, and the proposition for doing 
away with it was negatived. Yes : that point which 
Mr. Cannino- uro^ed more than any other, that the 
flogging of women should be abandoned, was, in 
1831, there rejected twice : first, by a majority of 
35 to 2, and next by a majority of somewhat the same 
number." An attempt was also made to obtain a law 
to forbid the exposure of the person as above alluded 
1 to, and this also was lost ; The truth is, the cart- whip 
' could not be applied to the same extent as now it is 
to any other part of the person, and of course not 
without this exposure ; for the vital parts would be in 
such awful contact with the infliction that death would 
almost invariably be the immediate consequence were 



124 



A MEMOIR OF 



the severest punishments apphed to the upper parts of 
the body. 

No one can be more disgusted with these shocking 
details than the author of this memoir ; but he has 
frequently been interrogated on the subject, and he 
feels it to be quite time for him to break silence with 
those oppressors of Negroes, and persecutors of mis- 
sionaries, that the public may know somewhat more 
of the merits of the controversy. No one can either 
know the obstacles with which missionaries have to 
contend, or the triumphs of truth and righteousness 
in the case of the thousands of their converts, unless he 
be made acquainted with the state of West Indian 
society ; and this, he thinks, by the letters on which he 
has felt it to be his duty to remark, was brought very 
legitimately under his review. The characteristic 
goodness of Mr. Jenkins's disposition laid him much 
at the mercy of the interested whites ; and his sphere 
of observation, like that of many other missionaries, 
was too limited to afford him a fair opportunity of 
correcting their misrepresentations. Excepting these, 
it is chiefly the slaves who are acquainted with the 
atrocities of the system, and they seldom complain ; 
for they know that they would speak at the risk of 
being generally disbelieved, and the peril of being 
severely punished. They suffer unobserved by any 
one who has either the power or the disposition to 
punish, or even to expose, their oppressors, except by 
Him who has declared — Vengeance is mine ; I ivill 
repay y 

On the subject of emancipation the writer thought 
of being silent through despair ; but, since the above 
was put to press, he has perused the Four Essays on 
Colonial Slavery ^ by John Jeremie, Esq,, late First 
President of the Royal Court of St. Liicia,'^ to 
which he cannot but wish a universal circulation ; for 
he has met with nothing which so nearly meets the 
views of all parties, and so fully reconciles conflicting 
interests. The horrid facts detailed give but a fair 
exhibition of the state of West Indian society ; and 
the doctrines are those of an able, benevolent man; 
They are the more valuable for having been arrived at 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



125 



in the ordinary intercourse of judicial duty, in opposi- 
tion to previous prejudices favourable to the slave 
system : and for their being published in correction of 
views officially communicated by I\Ir. Jeremie to the 
British government, after several years' residence in St. 
Lucia : durinof which time he remained, thouorh un- 
consciously, completely ignorant of the gross abomi- 
nations and systematic murder of West Indian slavery. 

In May, 1829," says this dignified character, " I, in 
a report of the government, stated it as my opinion 
that freemen in Europe sometimes submitted cheerfully 
' to toils and privations unknown to the West Indian 
slave.' " ^' But in six months afterwards " he met 
w^ith a case, in the course of his official duties, in which 
a manager referred to other estates in justification of 
his own conduct, and indeed in proof that - his 
manao-ement was lenient, as he never had w^orked his 
gang more than forty-two hours together ! " This 
fact shows how^ possible it is for persons who are not 
immediately concerned in the management of slaves to 
live in the West Indies for years, and, like Mr. Jen- 
kins, plead the lenity of the system. Writings of this 
kind from ]Mr. Jeremie have even been laid before the 
British parliament : and he has published the " Essays" 
here alluded to, to counteract their influence, and to 
put the British public in possession of the real state of 
the case. In the compass of 123 pages, he has thrown 
light on almost every possible difficulty, and has pro- 
posed a plan, first of amelioration, and ultimately of 
abolition, which probably would more speedily effect 
the complete triumph of emancipation, than those plans 
of immediate freedom which rouse the indignation of 
the West Indian planters to resist all concession, and 
shock the political prejudices and legislative con- 
sciences, of a majority of even a British parliament. 
This imperial body, though it legislates for a Christian 
country, is now, whatever a reformed parliament may 
prove to be, in a great degree composed of men who 
are more vulnerable to the expediency of the mere 
politician, backed by the wealth and influence of West 
Indian proprietors, than to the exalted motives and 
influences of our holy religion : and in much of our 
M 2 



126 



A MEMOIR OF 



intercourse with men, our wisdom consists in taking 
them as they are, and not in attempting to make th^m 
what they are never very likely to become. Nothing 
of principle, therefore, would be conceded by making 
the best bargain we can with such a body of men, and 
thereby obtaining speedily what, on other conditions, 
they would peremptorily and permanently refuse. 
Mr. Jeremie despairs of efficient colonial legislation ; 
he wishes the case to be seriously taken up by the 
British parliament ; he even gives the outlines of a 
bill, which he engages to fill up in twenty- four hours ; 
and his plan is such that it ought not to be hastily con- 
demned, especially as ii: is founded, in a good degree, 
on actual experiment in the island of St. Lucia. Peti- 
tions, however, for immediate abolition ought not to be 
neglected. They embody the sentiments of a large 
and very respectable portion of the British public ; 
they remind pro fessed Christian legislators of Christian 
principle and duty ; and add much to the impression 
produced, b^ showing that the public are increasingly^ 
alive to the importance of the subject. Much is said 
on the danger of emancipation ; and immediate eman- 
cipation is supposed to hazard the safety of the colo- 
nies. But is it intended that they are now secure ? 
The public ought to know that the danger consists in 
the continuance of the system. Slavery in the West 
Indies is as dangerous as it is monstrous, and the 
speediest method is the best method of getting rid of it 
for all concerned. And let it not be forgotten that the 
religious public are those on whom, in a question of 
this nature, most reliance is to be placed. The ideas 
of the advocates of the slave system are correct ; they 
have most to fear from the saints." They use the 
word ironically, however; we sincerely ; and, while the 
" saints" abroad tnust necessarily be silent^ let those 
at home avail themselves of what has been considered 
as the only privilege of Englishmen ; — let them com- 
plain. A persevering expression of public opinion has 
seldom been uttered in vain ; and, much as " the 
saints " are contemned by the inquisitorial persecutors 
of religious slaves and missionaries, and the mob de- 
stroyers of their chapels, it is probably in our power 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS, 127 

to convince them that there is a point beyond which 
the endurance of " saints " cannot be presumed upon 
with impunity. The whole history of the suppression 
of the slave-trade, and of recent amelioration by 
Orders in Council in the crown colonies, abundantly 
proves that we are benefiting the planters themselves 
by every improvement in the condition of the slave. 
Mr. Jeremie gives an instructive exhibition of the 
iniquitous means adopted in St. Lucia to hide this fact 
from the government, and to propagate a contrary im- 
pression : and he abundantly proves that the fact itself 
is indisputable, from the very mouths of those who 
were most solicitous to create a false idea, by cries of 
insurrection among the slaves, and destruction to the 
interests of the planters; which, on proper investiga- 
tion, were proved to be the very reverse of fact. The 
habits and prejudices of the planters are more impli- 
cated than their interests ; and, if they would not pro- 
voke the slaves to insurrection by colonial discussions 
in opposition to the measures of the imperial govern- 
ment and legislature, the destructive violence which 
the slave system offers to the interests of all connected 
with it would speedily be superseded by the mild and 
peaceable introduction of such a state of things as 
w^ould be alike congenial to the prosperity and com- 
fort of all the parties concerned. The colonists, how- 
ever, must be thus blessed, not by the concurrence of 
their own ideas, and the co-operation of their own 
authorities, but in spite of them ; and the power of 
British opinion and of British legislation, under the 
providence of a gracious God, are the only sources to 
which the friends of order can look for the correction 
of the state of West Indian society. 

The following extracts from The Christian Advo- 
cated^ newspaper (one of which is a part of a speech 
by Mr. Beaumont, a member of the Jamaica Assem- 
bly) are instructive on the subject of slavery, and of 
slave insurrections generally, and exculpatory of the 
conduct of those missionaries on whom it has been 
attempted to fix the guilt of the horrid occurrence 
alluded to. The speech of Mr. Beaumont w^as deli- 
vered on occasion of a motion on the 2d of April last, 



128 



A MEMOIR OF 



made in the Jamaica House of Assembly, that a sum 
of money be voted for the support of the Rev. Mr. 
Wordie, of the Presbyterian Kirk in Kingston, for the 
past year ; another sum to enable him to proceed to 
the United Kingdom, in order to enlist in the pro- 
slavery cause the General Assembly of the Church of 
Scotland ; and a third sum for the support of the other 
Presbyterian preachers of that island. 

" Mr. Beaumont was determined to oppose so much 
of the motion as contemplated an additional vote of 
money to the Presbyterians. He did not object to the 
grant to Mr. Wordie, but v^ished him to take warning 
how he acted in future. He contended, if there was 
any meaning in wordsj that Presbyterianism was 
sectarianism, and that in a sense in which the word 
could not be applied to Methodism ; this the hon. 
member argued at some length. It was, he said, a 
curious feature in the history of Methodism that its first 
apostles were persecuted because they were not secta- 
rians, and therefore not entitled to the benefits of those 
Toleration Acts which the Presbyterians, as Dissenters, 
claimed as the charter of their religious liberty. 
Having dwelt on this point for some time, the hon. 
member proceeded to remark on the futility of all 
attempts to uphold the system of slavery. " Not all 
the energies," said he, " nor eloquence, nor talents, 
nor sophistry, of ten thousand preachers of any sect, 
from this or any other country, will avail to persuade 
the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland that 
slavery is a blessing to humanity. Ay, too well do we 
in Jamaica know what a curse the system is. Legis- 
lators of Jamaica, look around you : behold the con- 
dition of your own country ; contemplate the acts of 
other lands ; behold the rapid march of free institutions 
over the civilised world, and say if, by wasting the 
means of an impoverished and almost ruined island, by 
establishing a new hierarchy, you can perpetuate 
slavery here ! Not all the Presbyterian kirks, not all 
the Episcopalian churches, not all the sectarian meet- 
ing-houses, which the rulers of the human species can 
build, will stop the progress of liberal institutions. 
The decree of nature has gone forth to all the world, 



THE REV. JOHX JENKINS. 129 



and man must obey it. Slavery has heard the award 
of destruction issued against her, and her partisans' 
efforts will not save her. But they themselves perhaps 
may perish under her ruins. With a curious incon- 
sistency, easily accounted for when we remember that 
the warmest advocates for liberal institutions, as 
respects their own caste, are the proprietors of slaves, 
you are now proceeding to vote a sum of money, a 
part of which is to encourage education. Can you 
educate man in Enorlish literature without teachinof 
him to love freedom ? Are not the lower orders of 
your free population (now admitted to the same politi- 
cal rights as yourselves) closely connected by the 
strongest ties of nature with your slaves ? Can you 
prevent the spirit which you infuse in that class from 
breathing its liberty-loving influence into that other 
class with which it is allied by the tenderest relations 
and sympathies ? I do not tell you what is to be 
brought about by any effort of mine. I merely ask 
you to see the ' coming events casting their shadows 
before,' and which it requires no power of political 
prophecy to predict. As the human mind advances 
in civilisation, its newly-developed energies demand 
freer principles of government. The degraded being 
then throws off his fetters, and demands his place in 
the family of mankind. Can any preacher of any sect 
stop this tide of human feeling ? Let him first arrest 
the ebb of the ocean. As well might he essay to give 
the globe on which we breathe another impetus, as 
hope he can cause the human intellect to retrace its 
course, and then stagnate in slavery and bigotry." As 
it respected the charge against the Methodists and 
Baptists, of being instrumental in exciting the late 
lamentable insurrection, he should content himself (Mr. 
Beaumont said) w^ith referring to facts. No man had 
seen more of that horrid scene of destruction and 
misery to all classes than himself; but he could declare 
that not one Wesley an Methodist, of any cast or com- 
plexion, was concerned in that insurrection. " But," 
continued he, "let not the people, I mean the slave- 
possessors of Jamaica, be deceived ; let them not 



130 



A MEMOIR OF 



imagine that, by expelling (if such a measure were 
even practicable), let them not imagine that, by ex- 
pelling every preacher of every denomination from 
this island, they can insure tranquillity to themselves. 
The evidence before your committees, your ov^^n ex- 
perience, convinces you that your slaves are daily in- 
creasing in knowledge, improving in civilisation. 
Think you that the spring of the human mind, polished 
by civilisation and tempered by education, will not 
exert its elasticity ? You have it in evidence that 
many of your slaves read the newspapers. Then they 
must peruse all the arguments used by yourselves to 
justify your resistance to the mandates of the sove- 
reign. Do I blame you for maintaining your rights ? 
No ; with you I am ready to perish in maintaining 
them. But I desire justice to all the people. I ask 
you to be consistent with yourselves. Think you that 
the slaves will not apply the arguments you employ in 
your defence against the aggressions of the parent 
state to their own condition ? To perpetuate slavery, 
you must not alone banish sectarian ministers : you 
must stop the progress of civilisation ; you must not 
barely fetter, you must destroy the press ; you must 
cease to express your opinions in this house, at your 
public meetings, or even at your private tables ; you 
must be yourselves the worst of slaves, in order to per- 
petuate the slavery of others, of men speaking the 
same language as yourselves. Your rule of politics 
must conform to the changes in the public opinion here 
and in Britain : it must conform, it must shape itself 
to the changes which have taken place in the mass of 
the people for whom you are legislating. Thus it is 
that you will render your properties secure — preserve 
your homes from the firebrand of the incendiary — 
your lives from the knife of the assassin — your wives, 
sisters, and daughters, from the pollution of the 
ravisher. By a wise, a liberal, a just policy, give to 
each man in the country, be his complexion or condi- 
tion what it may, an interest in preserving your insti- 
tutions, in protecting your property : then, and then 
only, will ypu be safe. What men have more gal- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



131 



lantly and faithfully fought your battle in the late in- 
surrection than the free mulattoes and blacks ? None. 
Are they not the same men as their brethren in slavery ? 
Why, then, not increase your friends, and diminish 
your national enemies, by thinning the ranks of slavery, 
adopting measures to facilitate the progress of emanci- 
pation, such as the law of compensation-manumission 
I introduced into this house ? Do not imagine that I 
seek to deprive you of any part of your property. 
It is my object to render it secure. For the last eight 
years what has been your conduct ? Your property has 
lessened its value till you declare, and truly declare, 
that its proceeds will not afford you the means of pay- 
ing the interest of the encumbrances upon it. Robbery, 
incendiarism, and rape, have defiled our beautiful 
country ; and the assassin's sword has been but super- 
seded by that of the executioner. It is to avert these 
frightful ills, which render property and life itself a 
curse, that I call on you to consider of some more 
effectual means of public safety than the attempt, the 
futile attempt, to establish a new hierarchy of Presby- 
terian priests, without congregations, in this island." 

But, as might naturally be expected, an accusation 
had been made against Mr. Beaumont of being fa- 
vourable to the late rebellion. The gentleman de- 
fended himself against the accusation, and asserted that, 
had he joined the blacks, they would have had entire 
possession of the country. He insisted that the only 
remedy against the horrid ills under which the colony 
laboured was the adoption of measures to promote 
emancipation. A similar accusation was made against 
Mr. Price Watkins, a barrister, and also a Member 
of the Assembly. The sectarian preachers had all, 
for safety, been removed to Kingston. Leonard 
Walker, the ruler and leader of the Baptists, had been 
acquitted at the Cornwall assizes, having been indicted 
for exciting the slaves to rebellion. Mr. Burchell, 
another Baptist preacher, was to embark for New 
York. Francis Gardner, likewise a Baptist minister, 
was tried for sedition ; but the Attorney- General soon 
declined to go on with the prosecution, and entered 



132 



A MEMOIR OF 



likewise a nolo prosequi against William Knibbs, also 
charged with sedition. After the acquittal, or rather 
after the grand jury ignoring the indictment against 
Mr. Burchell, party spirit ran so high at Montego 
Bay that the friends and foes of this individual as- 
sembled in arms before the gaol, the one side deter^ 
mined to protect, and the other to ill-use him. To 
prevent the effusion of blood, the Chief Justice and 
Attorney- General removed Mr. Burchell on board his 
Majesty's ship Ariadne, and from thence to America, 
at an expense of IO5., which the Assembly 

voted, by a majority of one, to be repaid. 

" The Baptist missionary, Burchell, had been set at 
liberty, in consequence of the bill against him having 
been ignored by the grand inquest. It seems that 
Mr. Burchell was apprehended, and lodged in con- 
finement, on the affidavit of a man named Stennet, who 
had himself been among the rebels. Subsequently, 
however, the unfortunate man stated to several persons 
that what he had deposed to against the missionaries 
was totally false^ and that he had been bribed and 
induced by promises to make that declaration. The 
hand of providence bore heavy on the conscience of the 
misguided man, and, with peculiar firmness of mind, 
he avowed twice to the grand jury his total ignorance 
of any circumstance which could criminate them. He 
was instigated, he said, to do so, by four gentlemen^ 
whom he named, one of whom assured him that he 
would be well looked upon by the gentlemen of the 
place, that the country would give him ^10 per 
annum, and that one of them would make ten pounds 
Jiffy poujids ! It seems evident, from this conduct of 
the planters, that whatever may have been the imme- 
diate cause of the late insurrection, they are anxious 
to make that event a handle to accomplish what has 
long been the dearest purpose of their hearts." 

But though this violence ought not to be endured, 
and the advocates of emancipation plead even in 
Jamaica, considering the characters who have to deal 
with the question, and the many and powerful in- 
terests which it involves, the author sees no prospect of 



THE RET. JOHN JEXKINS. 



133 



its being speedily adjusted, except by such means as 
every enemy to bloodshed must most sincei'ely deplore, 
and every good subject ought to endeavour to avert. 
The agitation of the question in the Imperial and 
Colonial Legislatures — the increased violence of the 
whites — and the almost universal disposition of the 
slaves to rebel — are acting and re-acting upon each 
other, and open a prospect in the West Indies which 
all whose interests are implicated in West India pro- 
perty, under its present system of management, will 
have permanent reason to deplore, and from which 
missionaries and their friends have numerous interrup- 
tions to apprehend. The present system will become 
increasingly precarious in the event of a war, which 
might alfbrd some rival power an apology to excite 
and assist in rebellion, and render it impossible for 
England to continue her present system of naval and 
military protection to the cause of West Indian Slavery. 
But, until the question can be adjusted, let an attempt 
be made to prevent future insurrection, by withdrav/- 
ing the power of arbitrary punishment : and let some 
other system be adopted which is worthy of men, 
though it may still continue to be unworthy of Chris- 
tians. The writer has good authority for recom.mend- 
ing a substitution of the imssionary for the cart-whip. 
One of the most respectable men he ever knew (once 
a violent persecutor, but who, on seeing our Instruc- 
tions," previously alluded to, employed us to catechise 
his Negro children) said to him, " INIr. Jackson, the 
people in England will not allow us to beat our Negroes 
now as we used to beat them : we must have some 
motive to obedience ; and we must now employ you 
to tell them that it is their duty to God to obey us.'' 
In that island, some of his associates in his Majesty's 
council have told the writer (and probably they had 
told others) that they had long tried the experiment, and 
it had succeeded perfectly. On tw^o of the estates here 
alluded to, the manager assured him that the instruc- 
tions of the missionary had nearly superseded the 
cart- whip, though, previously to their being employed, 
he had to use it to a heart-rending extent. Man is a 



134 



A MEMOIR OF 



moral agent; and the thrice-transported convict of 
Macquarie Harbour,* and the slave of the West Indies, 
have proved vulnerable to spiritual and moral means 
and influences, w^hen all the ingenuity of man had been 
exhausted, in vain, in the employment of corporal in- 
flictions. 

* For an interesting account of the establishment of this Mis-- 
sion, by advice of the Governor, as well as its success, see Wes- 
leyan Methodist Mag\, 1832, p. 219. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



135 



CHAPTER V. 

Slaves the direct objects of the Wesleyan inissions in, 
the West Indies. — Letters from Mr. Jenkins to the 
Rev. Messrs. W. and A. Barber. — Remarks on the 
Resolutions of the Wesley an Missionaries in Ja- 
maica on the subject of Slavery. — Dangers of In- 
surrection averted by the Rev. R. Young.- — Letter 
from the Rev. J. Shipman.—Mr. Jenkins appointed 
to Morant-Bay . — Letter to his father. — Exhaust- 
ing labours. — Rev. Mr. Kerr.^ arrival and station 
of. — Mr. Jenkins's attempts to establish a mission 
at Port Antonio. — Letter of a magistrate refusing 
license. — Imminent danger of Mr. Jenkins from the 
fall of his horse. — Sickliness of the Country^ and 
death of Seamen. — Letter to the Rev. A. Barber. — ^ 
Morals of the West Indians. — Letter from the Rev. 
Mr. Morley. — Opposition to Missionary Meetings. 
— Letter from a Clergyman. — Miscellaneous in- 
teresting communications. 

From what has been said in the preceding* chapter, 
the thorough-paced West Indian may possibly have 
his doubts as to the policy of permitting those who 
are opposed to slavery, even in the abstract, any share 
in teaching the slaves of our colonies. The following 
letters from Mr. Jenkins to the Rev. A. Barber and 
his brother, however, v/ill show that, while the mis- 
sionaries speak freely on the treatment they receive, 
they meditate no revenge ; but give themselves unto 
prayer, subordinate every other consideration to the 
salvation of souls, and even lament the exertions made 
at home by the friends of the Negroes, because they 
are abused by the enemies of missions, and originate 



136 



A MEMOIR OF 



private and legislative opposition. The vt^riter re- 
members when he w^as in similar circumstances ; and 
when he asked his superintendent, " How, sir, am I, 
as a Christian missionary, to reconcile it to my con- 
science to teach the slave his duty, and to preach 
against his vices, while I dare not be equally jPaithful 
towards his owner?" The answer was as follows, 
and was considered satisfactory : — " I consider that the 
slaves are the objects of our mission ; and of course we 
must have access to them. But, were we to preach 
against the peculiar vices of slavery, you know we 
should be denied access to them, perhaps immediately 
banished from the colony, and the benevolent designs 
of our employers would be completely frustrated. If 
the whites profit by our ministry while preaching 
against the vices which are common to all, as you 
know they do, we are grateful ; but they are not the 
objects of our mission." Many may doubt the pro- 
priety of such a line of reasoning, and of the conduct 
to which, ever since the establishment of our missions, 
this reasoning has led ; but those who consider how 
completely the masters and slaves of our West Indian 
colonies are separated from each other in their views 
and interests, will see that these are the only terms 
on which we could possibly expect to gain access to 
those over whom is exercised the most unlimited 
authority. The letters, with the exception of a few 
unimportant remarks, to which these observations are 
considered as a necessary preface, are as follows : — 

"Jamaica, Grateful-Hill, Oct, llih, 1824. 
" My very, very, dear William, 

" If it has seemed to you that I have been 
negligent in not writing you before, I hope the state- 
ments in this letter will apologize for me, and satisfy 
you that I dare not forget you, or in the smallest de- 
gree be unkind. I love you, I love you dearly, and 
sincerely hope you will not suspect my sincerity for a 
single moment. 

The character of the people of this country differs 
very much from what is observable in England, as 
nearly all the inhabitants are Negroes or their 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS, 



137 



descendants. They seem to possess a great deal of 
cunning and deceit, which the slave makes it his busi- 
ness to cultivate. 

" The mission in this colony promises much ; and 
we may expect that the Lord of the harvest will con- 
tinue to prosper the labours of his servants, if they are 
allowed to remain at their posts ; but this is, at present, 
rather doubtful, or, if it may be allowed, yet we fear 
our exertions will be considerably contracted. It is 
hardly possible at home to form proper views of the 
state of things here. The missionary, if allowed to 
pass the court of quarter sessions, dares not go beyond 
the limit of the district under the coor-nizance of such 
court, without being liable to fine and imprisonment : 
and the magistrates are generally watchful to de- 
tect any that do so. The missionary's conduct is 
observed with extreme suspicion, and his character 
without mercy attacked in the public papers, that 
teem every week with the most bitter invective against 
him. I think much of it is the effect of ignorance, 
but much more because their lives and preaching re- 
prove the ungodliness which prevails. We are forced 
to be exceedingly cautious of the statements we ad- 
vance, both in the pulpit and in private ; as also to live 
much in the spirit of prayer, and to be constant in our 
work. The temptations, and provocations, and calum- 
nies, that we meet with every day, imperatively re- 
quire piety, and the ignorance and wickedness of the 
people faithfulness and zeal. One thing, however, al- 
low me to remark, that the prospect of good in these 
colonies is very considerable ; and the numbers saved 
by God's servants in the east will bear no comparison 
with those in the west. It is true the obstacles to the 
salvation of the Hindoo and of the slave are quite op- 
posite ; but the excellency of the working is of God,^ 
and the power and the wisdom of His plans must be 
exerted to save a slave as well as a Brahmin. 

" The distressing affair at Demerara, and the 
opinion held here of the, at least, unfortunate Smith, 
operate very unfavourably to missionaries and their 
exertions : and the state of the emancipation question, 
and the known religious professions of the principal 

N 2 



138 



A MEMOIR or 



agents in the matter, induce the people to imagine 
that the missionaries are the agents of a political 
faction, and are secretly, but designedly, striving to 
overturn their system. 

I am quite anxious to know how Providence has 
led you. Be assured I have prayed many, many times 
with fervency that the Lord may lead you himself, and 
make you willing to yield to his guiding. — I hope you 
cleave close to Him, and strive for much simplicity of 
soul before Him. — Blessed be God, I do feel my 
heart devoted to Him more than ever, and rejoice ex- 
ceedingly that I am his servant. — I am about to open 
a new station about eighteen miles distant, and to sup- 
ply it as often as I can ; as the people, and some of 
them very respectable, have repeatedly sent to request 
me. 

" Write me soon ; don't let a packet slip. I long to 
hear from you : and am, most sincerely and affec- 
tionately, yours, 

" John Jenkins.'* 

" Jamaica, Grateful- Hill, Oct. I5th, 1824. 

My dearest Quill, 

" It seems a very long time since we had the 
pleasure of seeing each other last, and since we bade 
each other farewell, without ever expecting to see 
each other's face again. I should certainly have 
written you before, giving' some account of our voyage 
to this country, and the prospects of usefulness, as well 
as some general outline of the character of the people ; 
but my beloved Sarah was desirous of writing your 
Jane, and I stuffed a few words into her letter, but 
cannot at present tell what they were designed to 
mean, or whether they mean any thing. Be that as it 
may, I would, with a great deal of pleasure and 
fidelity, give that information now, were I capable. 

Jamaica is certainly, in most points of view, a very 
important colony : and, as a mission station, not to be 
ranked among the meanest. The face of the country 
is uneven in most parts, rising in some to most stu- 
pendous heights. " The Blue Mountains" exceed any 
I have ever seen in England and Wales, and most of 



THE REV. 



JOHN JEXKINS. 



139 



their summits, piercing the clouds, enjoy the benefit of 
calm and sunshine, whilst the tempest rages about 
midway. The soil is exceedingly productive, bringing 
immense crops yearly, without any addition more than 
its own weeds will afford. From twenty to thirty 
years the same ground will be used as a coffee-planta- 
tion, and yield every year well with scarcely any 
trouble.* 

" We have fruits in abundance : and, in the country 
parts, as much as you may like for nothing : you may 
help yoursel: perfectly unmolested. The oranges are 
very superior, as are the pines, which in many places 
are planted as fences. Our vegetables are good, but not 
equal to the Enghsh. Yams are a good substitute for 
potatoes. Plantains and cocoa are eaten as bread; but 
they are as much like bread as cucumbers are like straw- 
berries, f However, I eat them, and am satisfied, when 
I can get nothing else. I have eaten potatoes grown in 
this country, but they were far from being good. The 
bread-fruit tree is cultivated here with success. But 
the Creoles prefer plantains and cocoa ; and so I think 
would any body, for it is, I think, altogether unlike 
bread. 

" The climate is intensely hot, especially in the 
towns. Europeans must be very careful, or they will 
soon die : as exposure to the sun induces a great many 
diseases. I think myself capable of bearing a tolerable 
degree of heat ; but sometimes I have been nearly 
suffocated with it : and have, with difficulty, retained 
my senses, and sat my horse. Grateful-Hill (which I 
will write you something about by-and-bye) is one of 
the coolest in the country, and frequently the glass, in 
the shade, in our room, with the doors and windows 
open to catch every breeze, has stood at 90"", and often 

* This remark will not apply to the sugar estates, as it regards 
either manure or labour, 

t The plantain is a long round fruit, when skinned, about the 
size and shape of a sausage. In an unripe state, it is roasted in 
the ashes, or boiled, and eaten to breakfast or dinner : in which 
state its taste is insipid. AVhen ripe, its taste is somewhat like 
that of a soft pear. It is eaten raw as a fruit, or sliced and fried 
as a vegetable. Excepting the orange and the pine, the T\-riter 
thinks the West Indian fruits much inferior to those of England. 



140 



A MEMOIR OF 



above, and scarcely ever lower than 84"*. In the sun, 
it has stood at 140'* ; so that, when riding in it, and I 
have to do so often, it is like breathing- at the very 
mouth of an oven. 

This has been a very dry year, and we have had 
several earthquakes, and two of them were dreadful. 
Our house was so terribly shaken that I imagined its 
fall was inevitable. The rainy season is now set in, 
which is always a very sickly time. Several of the 
white inhabitants have lately died, among whom was 

. He has been a very vicious fellow, and how 

he died I know not. — I have had several attacks of 
fever within the time I have been here. The last was 
severe, and laid me up for nearly three weeks. It was 
produced by over-exertion. It has taught me, I hopoy 
that I must be satisfied to do no more than I can. 
My dearest Sarah has had tolerable health upon the 
whole, but she has had fever also. 

It is now time to give you some account of my 
station, prospects, success, &c. &c. 

" My station is quite inland, and distant from any 
town about twenty or thirty miles. It is also in the 
midst of an extensive chain of mountains, some of 
which are exceedingly high. 

"Our chapel and house are one building of wood, 
and are alone, on the very summit of a hill, about 1400 
feet above the level of the sea. The height however 
is not, from the place, discernible, because of the ex- 
tent of the range of hills, about two or three miles 
wide, and very undulating. The country is very 
woody, and many of the trees are immense. The 
cedar and the cotton are the largest. — The chapel will 
seat about 300 persons, and is about half large enough : 
the dwelling-house has three small rooms on the 
same floor. 

" Besides Grateful-Hill, we have a chapel about 
five miles distant, and much higher than this place, 
the roads to which, in some places, are tremendous, as 
indeed are most of the mountain roads. We v/ind 
round the sides of immense precipices, not completely 
perpendicular, but sufficiently steep to convince us we 
might but expect one tumble. The horse belonging 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



141 



to the station is a good one, and accustomed to the 
roads, vrhich, in many places, are so steep that I am 
forced to lay on his back to prevent falling", and in 
others not more for miles than from eight to twelve 
inches broad. One slip would be fatal. I have tra- 
velled them often now, and begin to lose all my fear ; 
but most of all because I have read, ' The very hairs 
of your head are all numbered.' 

" If labour is to be estimated by the number of 
sermons, I have but little ; for I preach no oftener 
than four times a week, and never more than twice on 
the Lord's-day. But preaching is far from half the 
work. Most good is expected to result from private 
instruction, especially catechetical. I have a Sunday- 
school that meets twice on the Lord's-day, and a 
school of about fifty children and adults, principally 
slaves, that attend twice in the week, besides many I 
teach to write, &c., who are free people of colour.* 

"We have about 600 members in society, besides 
many on trial, to the religious wants of whom I have 
alone to attend. — Many Lord's-days I have been so 
incessantly engaged, from eight in the morning till 
about five or six in the evening, as not to have a moment 
for a morsel of bread, and until my body has been 
tired almost to death. In the midst of these things, 
however, the Lord has helped me, and I never was 
more solicitous to be a missionary to the heathen 
than now. 

" Before you receive this, we expect something im- 
portant to the mission in this country will have taken 
place. The House of Assembly commences its sittings 
in a few weeks, apparently determined, if possible, 
to efffect our removal from the colony. The case of 
the unfortunate Smith, whatever have been its facts, 
has excited a public suspicion and enmity against us. 
Our characters, objects, &c. &c., are the themes of 
discussion in every paper in the island ; and the politi- 

* Keeping day-schools is not ordinary work for our West 
Indian missionaries, and may explain why, in his letter to Mr. 
Lane, Mr. Jenkins complains of too limited a sphere of labour, 
while in his letters to his other correspondents he appears so 
fully employed. 



14^ 



A MEMOIR OF 



€al papers in our magazines, and other periodicals, 
and the part our friends act at home in colonial ques- 
tions, are perpetually brandished about our ears, 
threatening the total annihilation of our mission. The 
expectation of the bishop, and with him, as report 
says, of eight or nine of the regular clergy, it is in- 
vidiously stated will supersede our labours, and, as a 
writer in the last week's public Journal states, cause 
the mission monster to hide its head for ever. — Yon 
may have heard of a document on this subject to the 
ex-president, as an appeal to Conference on these 
matters. — We live, indeed, in perilous times, and re- 
quire much patience, and piety, and watchfulness, to 
keep our ground. But my mind is unmoved. Blessed 
be God ! I do not fear what man can do unto me. If 
the Lord is with us, we have enough ! 

A Methodist preacher in this country suffers very 
little privation : so little that, without voluntary hu- 
mility, I could wish myself at some other station. I 
certainly never calculated upon going to the West 
Indies, and hope, if the Lord spare me, yet to be al- 
lowed to go to " the untaught Indian's brood." O how 
I long to point such to Jesus ! It is true that thou- 
sands in this country are such, but how are we to have 
access to them ? Our hands are tied, because we are 
represented as exciting to rebellion. We are hindered, 
and hindered by humane, but in many respects mis- 
taken, statements and exertions at home. They may 
effect something for the condition of the slaves in this 
w^orld, and, in the contest, thousands upon thousands 
of souls fall, and die for ever and ever ! I do most 
sincerely wish the people of this land, and every other, 
perfect happiness, but I fear the proceedings referred 
to will not effect it here. I love souls, my dear Quill ; 
I love souls more than ever ; and I dread any thing 
that will keep one soul in darkness that might come to 
the knowledge of Jesus, to effect the emancipation of 
a world. Pardon me if I have taken up too much 
paper with this subject. 

" We are about to lose two of the principal mis- 
sionaries on this station, Messrs. Shipman and Horne. 
The former, who has been here about eleven years, 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS, 



intends returning home, and the latter is going* to the 
Bahamas. — We shall feel their loss. By the stations, 
I find we may expect four from home. I pray they 
may be men of God, and devoted to the great work ; 
but, as things are, I know not what to think of their 
coming immediately. — Poor Allen soon went after his 
arrival. The Lord make us ready ! 

" But tell me, Quill, how is it I find thee in London? 
I wish thee good luck in the large place, and hope 
you will be useful. 

" Please to present our very kind love to Mr. Grif- 
fith, Mr. Moore, Mr. Taylor, and all my friends. — - 
I hope that soon after you receive this you will write 
me to the Parade Chapel, Kingston, by post, unless 
you learn that the committee are sending to the island : 
then it will come as soon through them. I want 
school rewards sadly, for the boys and girls ; and every 
thing from home is valuable : can you, or your Jane^ 
get any for us ? Will you make my love to Mr, 
Simpson, and beg him for us 

This letter was concluded by a few lines from Mrs, 
Jenkins, which contain the following testimony to the 
felicity she enjoyed in conjugal society with her hus- 
band : — " My dearest husband and I live happily to- 
gether. I find in him all I can desire. Pray the 
Lord to spare us to each other, and enable us to live to 
him. I feel I love the Saviour, and wish to love him 
more. I like Jamaica well. A sight of our beloved 
parents and friends would be most gratifying to us in 
this land of strangers. We love them all more than 
ever, and earnestly pray that we may meet them all 
in heaven. 

" Yours most affectionately, 

" Sarah Jenkins.'^ 

The perilous circumstances in which the Wesleyan 
mission was placed, by the occurrences alluded to in 
the above extracts, induced the missionaries to adopt a 
most imprudent step, by the publication of a string of 
resolutions, declarative of their innocence of the charges 
preferred, and of their opinions of slavery. These 
were too analogous to those previously avowed by 



144 



A MEMOIR OF 



Mr. Jenkins, in his letter to Mr. Saunders, to escape 
the approbation of the colonists, or the censure of the 
friends of missions at home. They soon perceived 
their error, and earnestly repented of it : and it is but 
justice to show that it was early the subject of penitent 
correspondence between them, and regret in their 
communications with their friends. The following are 
extracts from communications to Mr. Jenkins by 
Messrs. Shipman and Young : the former the Chair- 
man of the district, the latter the author of a sermon 
preached in Jamaica, " On the return of Onesimus to 
Philemon," and which was as much the cause of con- 
gratulation to the slave-holders as the Resolutions oif 
the missionaries. Respecting these, Mr. Shipman 
writes as follows : — 

My dear Brother, 

" I have received your note and letter ; the 
latter I will either get signed by Mr. Ratcliffe, or, if 
I cannot do otherwise, sign it myself. 

" There is nothing very particular in the house this 
week save a motion of Mr. Rennolds, to admit, in 
certain cases, slave evidence. A friend of mine is 
elected for St. Dorothy's, — the Hon. James Stewart. 

Our circular and Mr. Young's Sermon have 
attracted considerable attention. The circular has 
appeared already in the Journal, Chronicle, Cou- 
rant, and the Spanish-Town paper: the editor of the 
latter speaks very highly of us, and thinks that the 
colonists have in us a ^ixong party , This is the worst : 
we don't wish to be of any party, or to have any thing 
to do with politics ; and our publishing was to remove 
an impression that we were of the opposite party. 
The people at home, as one of the writers thinks, won't 
like what we have done. This writer finds fault with 
Mr. Young's Sermon, p. 20, about the devil. Mr. Y. 
replied; and he has replied again, and says, Mr. Y. is 
better acquainted with the old gentleman than he is. 
" Nov. 11. 1824. Yours, John Shipman." 

From the foUowdng note it will be seen what were 
Mr, Young's ideas on the resolutions, and that Mr. 



THE RET, JOHN JENKINS. 



146 



Jenkins so much disapproved of the sentiments con- 
tained in his sermon that he refused to circulate it in 
his circuit : — 

" Stoney-Hill, Nov. 12, 1824. 

My dear Brother, 

" I have published for you here on Sunday. — 
I shall not be able to be at Grateful-Hill till Sunday 
morning, havmg some business to settle at our Lead- 
ers' meeting on Saturday evening. 

" I am sorry to learn that the sentiments contained 
in my sermon do not please you : however I am noi 
offended, nor is it my wish for you to sell any of the 
copies, as you do not fully coincide with the sentiments 
therein expressed: for I should not like to circulate a 
sermon of yours, or of any other person, which did 
not please me. Now, you understand me : I am not 
angry because you do not think with me, nor shall I feel 
in the least slighted by your returning the copies sent 
for sale : for it is what I should have done had I been 
in your circumstances. 

" The circular is a breach of our rules, which enjoin 
us not to interfere with politics, and from such an inter- 
ference we have not abstained. 

Yours, &c. &c., 

Robert Young." 

Rev. J, Jenkins." 

The history of this sermon is instructive, as to both 
the critical circumstances and the political fidelity of 
Mr. Youno-: and, as Mr. Jenkins was Mr. Youn^-'s con- 
temporary, it may be further illustrative of those of 
Mr. J. In a letter just published in the Wesleyan 
Methodist Magazine, Mr. Y. remarks, — 

During my residence in Jamaica, I published a 
sermon on the return of Onesimus to Philemon, in 
which I took a view of Christian principles as affecting 
the character of slaves. This discourse was reprinted 
in London early in 1825, and has since, without my 
concurrence, gone through several editions. I in- 
genuously confess to you that I have for years deeply 
regretted the publication of this sermon ; not on ac- 
count of its doctrine, but because the colonial party 

o 



146 



A MEMOIR OF 



have perverted its meaning, and in a thousand ways 
distorted its language to serve their own purposes." — 
After some remarks, and an extract, to show his design 
to be to prove that the slave by embracing Christianity 
does not cancel his obligation to his master," Mr. i . 
observes, It is true that some comforts possessed by 
the slaves are enumerated with a view of inducing them, 
as much as possible, to bear their servile condition with 
patient endurance, until it should be ameliorated by 
some legislative act ; and, although I have reason now 
to believe that those remarks could not with propriety 
be applied to the whole slave population of the West 
Indies, I feel confident that they were perfectly ap- 
plicable to the slaves who formed my congregation ; 
and as I had seen and believed so did I speak. 

But some will ask, why did I preach upon the 
subject ? Not to please the West India slave-holder, as 
certain public journals have very uncharitably alleged ; 
but to perform what I thought my duty, urged upon 
me by the peculiar circumstances in which I was 
placed. When Mr. Buxton's motion in Parliament, to 
emancipate the slaves, became known in the West 
Indies, it produced great excitement throughout the 
whole country. I was then stationed at Stoney-Hill, 
in the midst of a dense slave population, whose minds 
were but partially enlightened, that being the first year 
of the mission. Many of the slaves came to the Mis- 
sion House, and enquired, " If the King and Mr. 
Wilberforce had made them free ;" as they said it was 
generally reported so among the Negroes. I replied in 
the negative. They then desired to know if they could, 
consistently with Christian principles, forcibly liberate 
themselves. What was I to say ? In one part of the 
island, a revolt had already taken place ; and, had I 
given those slaves under my pastoral care the slightest 
encouragement, the consequences might have been 
dreadful. Had I done this — nay, if I had not exerted 
myself to check the spirit of insubordination, how could 
I have faced the Missionary Committee, whose in- 
structions rendered it obligatory on me to enjoin on 
the slaves ' obedience to their masters V I therefore 
thought it seasonable, and in perfect accordance with 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



147 



the spirit and the very letter of my instructions, to 
address my slave congregation upon the subject. I 
did so : the slaves were tranquillized ; and the publica- 
tion of the sermon being called for by some of our 
Leaders, I complied w^ith their request, after the manu- 
script had received the approbation of those of my 
senior brethren in v^hose judgment I had most confi- 
dence. 

" Such, sir, are the facts connected with the publica- 
tion of a sermon which has, through misrepresentation, 
brought upon me some reproach. Copies of the 
Jamaica papers, to which I have referred, have been 
sent to England, and circulated in this part of the 
country; and, erroneous impressions relative to my 
sentiments on colonial slavery having been received, 
I have thought it a duty I owe to myself, the Mis- 
sionary Committee, and the cause of God, thus to vin- 
dicate my character, and to request the insertion of this 
letter in your widely-circulated Magazine : and to assure 
you, and the Christian public, that, when I published 
my sermon, I was an enemy to negro slavery, and 
continue to be so ; and, so long as I have the heart of a 
Christian or a man, I can never be the friend of a sys- 
tem so brutal in its character, and so demoralizing in 
its tendency. 

Robert Young. 
" Stockton-on-Tees, March 22nd, 1832." 

Mr. Jenkins's opinion of this event is contained in the 
following extract from a letter to the Rev. Joseph 
Saunders : — 

" You have, I hope, seen our late excellent and blessed 
chairman, Mr. Shipman; and I am sure he would 
give the history of what (in consequence of an ignorance 
of the motive that suggested it) has brought this dis- 
trict into particular notice and abhorrence. I will not 
attempt to justify our fears — nor the measure adopted — 
nor the language of the Resolutions : but, my dear 
brother Saunders, we are 07ily men, and of a certainty 
we are men, not brutes — not devils — not the opposers 
of happiness — of the happiness of our poor people. 



148 



A MEMOIR OF 



for whom we are willing to live, and to labour, and to 
die. We love the slaves of this, and every other land, 
and there is not, I am confident, a missionary in this 
country, but hates slavery as much as it is possible for 
you to do, and is as fully desirous of bettering their 
civil condition : but who will believe me ? — who among 
the millions of England 1 the thousands of Methodists ? 
You will, I am confident you will : you know me ; — 
you cannot allow yourself to think for a moment I am 
so perfectly metamorphosed from the Christian Mis- 
sionary to the enemy of man. I will dismiss the sub- 

This is the language cf excited feehng ; but the fol- 
lowing extract of a letter from Mr. Shipman to Mr. 
Jenkins will show that the strong defensive ex- 
pressions were called forth by the reproaches of the 
public at home, which had been wafted across the At- 
lantic from a variety of sources calculated to make a 
Christian Missionary feel at every inlet of pain to his 
pious and sensitive soul. It will also show that, had 
principle been entirely absent from the minds of the 
Missionary Committee, and had their rules and in- 
structions not been in the least violated by these reso- 
lutions, the voice of the public, and the- voice of the 
Conference, were calling aloud for their condemnation. 

''Aberdeen, l&t Sept, 1825. 

" My dear Brother, 

" I have to ask ten thousand pardons for my 
delay in writing ; but I will only offer one apology. 
I wanted to see Bristol and get my troubles over, be- 
fore I troubled you with an epistle. In fact I felt my 
mind so disturbed with a variety of things, that I 
could scarcely set my heart to any kind of correspondence, 
and I am still far from being settled, although I have 
got to my circuit. 

" I find your friends, as well as mine, have been 
alarmed for our safety ; for they had got most horrible 
reports respecting us. Some said that we were all or- 
dered home ; others thought that we should not come,, 
but were going to place ourselves under the colonists ; 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



149 



and others thought that we should be expelled, &c. 
As to me, I appeared as though I had got the plague. 
When persons seemed to approach me with some degree 
of courtesy, they no sooner understood that I was 
Shipman, than they seemed involuntarily to shrink back 
from me, so that sometimes I was amused, at other 
times vexed, and sadly tempted. I went to Conference 
with a heavy heart, but had prepared for defence. 

"However, some of my best friends advised me to 
make no defence, as it would lead to discussion, which, 
with the present excited feeling, might seriously 
injure me, and would do no good, I had no con- 
ception of the ferment until I got to Bristol in time 
to attend the Committee meeting on Tuesday, and heard 
myself and the matter reprobated in the most severe 
manner. I sat and looked at them (hardly any one 
knew me, but some said I was present), and there were 
some nearly touching me, saying, ' Which is Shipman ? 
where is he V I said nothing. An intimation was 
given that the case would have to be considered when 
they came to character. I had received no copy of 
charges ; and I thought this queer, and sent a message 

to Mr. ^ , to this effect. When character came on, 

he said they had nothing against me as an individual, 

but said some very soothing things, and Mr. acted 

with great kindness, and said they could not tell what 
effect a long residence among such a people might 
have on them, and thought that we ought not to be 
personally visited ; but that the principle should be 
censured in the minutes by a resolution of the Confer- 
ence. This was carried in opposition to the wish of 
Mr. , which was that we should be tried for im- 
morality. I regret very much that I did not return 
home in those circumstances, which would have given 
me power to benefit the mission ; but, being marked as 
a black sheep, I had no chance. 

" We have had colds, and know not how we shall stand 
the winter, especially in these northern regions. We are 
so so, in health ; but we know nothing of Jamaica ; 
for no person has written us a line but Mr. Binning, and 
his was a very short letter ; — out of sight out of mind. 
However, I feel much for Jamaica : it will always 
o 2 



150 



A MEMOIR OF 



lay near my heart. My wife unites in kindest re- 
gards to you and Mrs. J., Mr. and Mrs. T., and all 
friends. 

" I am, my dear Brother, 

" 1 ours affectionately, 

^' John Shipman.'^ 

This history shows the price at which the full tolera- 
tion of the West India planters for Wesleyan missions 
might easily be purchased. Would Christian principle 
permit those who support these missions to allow their 
missionaries to advocate the cause of West Indian 
slavery, though, as we have seen, they are necessarily 
ignorant of most of its atrocities, they would be wel- 
comed as of " their party," and perhaps, like the Rev. 
Mr. Bridges of St. Ann's, they might be rewarded by 
the legislature for their trouble. But because the in- 
structions of the Wesleyan Missionary forbid him, pro or 
con, to interfere in the politics of the colonies, his si- 
lence receives the construction of interested malice, and 
he is generally the object of persecution. Neutrality, 
however, is his proper course, and the success of his ex- 
ertions, and the reward of his sufferings, he may confi- 
dently leave to that God who has said " Blessed are ye, 
when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say 
all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great is your re- 
ward in heaven." 

In January, 1825, Mr. Jenkins was appointed to 
the Morant-Bay circuit, respecting which he writes as 
follows in his Journal : — 

" Morant-Bay, Jan, ^Oth, 1825. — A year of many 
mercies and severe exercises has passed away, and I 
am still in the land of the living and of hope. The 
retrospect induces much contrition and gratitude. 
What an unprofitable servant have I been ! how much 
less holy, laborious, and useful, than I might have 
been ! and how much of the true spirit of a Christian 
missionary do I yet lack ! How often have I acted to 
please myself! what want of the spirit of meekness 
and holy fervour ! Yet, how good has the Lord been 
in preserving me through the season just over, though 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



151 



it has been very sickly, especially among the white 
population ! and he has also preserved my dear Sarah. 
Lord, teach me what I should do, and give me a heart 
to obey thee in all things. I am determined to renew 
my engagements with the Lord and his people, to be 
more holy and zealous if he prolong my life. 

" The district meeting commenced and ended in 
the spirit of Christian love. The brethren and their 
families are all well, blessed be the Lord ! O how re- 
freshing the company, and conversation, and devotional 
meetings, enjoyed at such times ; and how endeared 
the person of each member of our little mission family ! 
We all seem to belong, and do belong, to the same 
household, striving for mutual happiness and useful- 
ness. Death has not (only in the premature instance 
of our dear brother Allen) invaded our dwellings : 
and, though not free from sickness during the year, 
yet we are all alive to bless the Lord together. 

" Persecution, though attempting much, has effected 
nothing ; the Head of the church has dispersed her 
powers with the breath of his mouth ;"and, though our 
hearts feared exceedingly, yet he was to us a defence 
and a Saviour. 

''I am stationed at Morant-Bay, an interesting and 
important post, upon which I enter with great fear ; 
for what am I, and what my wisdom or strength, to 
manage the affairs of churches so large and long- 
established ? O that I may always act as in the sight 
of God, and have his wisdom to direct me ! 

The following extract of a letter from Mr. Jenkins 
to his father is somewhat more explicit on the subjects 
mentioned in the foregoing extract from his Journal: — 

Jamaica, Stoney-Hill, on my way to my circuit, 
which at present is Morant-Bay, Jan, ^4th, 1825. 

" My dear Father, 

" In consequence of rain, I am detained a little at 
this station, on my way from Grateful-Hill, which I left 
yesterday afternoon for Morant-Bay, to which I have 
been appointed by the last district meeting, left vacant 
by the removal of Mr. Home, who is just about leav- 
ing the island for Nassau, in the Bahamas, deeply re« 



152 



A MEMOIR OF 



gretted, I believe, by all the brethren. Of the station 
I will v/rite particulars when I become more ac- 
quainted with them. 

" The district meeting commenced on the 5th of 
January, at which the whole of the brethren were 
present (ten) . O what a handful did we appear, when 
the many, very many, pressing wants of the people 
required at least ten times our number ! Thank God ! 
we were all well, and felt as the heart of one man, 
determined to keep nothmg in view but the glory of 
the great Head of the church, and the salvation of 
precious souls ; and I am truly grateful that this feeling 
continued during the whole of the meeting ; and the 
brethren have dispersed, I believe, fully resolved to 
spend their strength and life for God. The fields, in 
every part of the island, are white to the harvest : ap- 
plication after application is made for the word of life; 
but what are we among so many ! The committee, 
I hope, are about to send us assistance, or some of the 
brethren, to all appearance, must fall ; as many of us 
have the work of two ; so that we shall be forced to 
travel night and day. The God of Jacob is our help 
and our shield. — We have just left a most affectionate 
and pious people, who followed us, yesterday, with 
tears and prayers, which I hope will be remembered 
in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

" The circuit to which I am going has upwards of 
4000 members ; and, as I have but Mr. Tremayne with 
me, we shall find it hard work. I thank God for the 
confidence my brethren have in me ; so that they have 
appointed me superintendent, and promised to give me 
two of the missionaries expected from home. The 
situation is to me awfully important ; and, that I may 
act as becometh the gospel, I entreat an interest in 
your constant prayers. The circuit contains four large 
chapels, at the distance of twelve or fourteen miles 
from each other ; and, besides these, I have to visit 
three or four large sugar estates, to catechise the 
Negroes : but, if the Lord give me health, I care 
nothing for work ; for, in this employment, ' I forget 
all time, and toil, and care.' Our minds were much 
affected with the sad tidings respecting my dear, dear 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



153 



mother. I pray a gracious Providence to restore her 
speedily, and to make this affliction v^ork eternal good. 
We should like to see you, but dare not regret having 
left father and mother for the sake of the Redeemer 
and the souls of men. Poor uncle and aunt ! v^ell, I 
hope they are safe in the kingdom of God. 

We are tolerably well, and have been so during 
the v^hole of the unhealthy season, which is now nearly 
past. 

" Please make our kindest, kindest love, to our 
family at Cheddar, and inform them of our intention of 
writing them from Morant-Bay. I am, my dear Father, 
" Your affectionate son, 

" John Jenkins." 

The following extracts from Mr. Jenkins's Journal 
will show that his anticipations of exhausting labours 
were fully realized : — 

^' February, — The labour of the circuit is very 
great, and more than can be attended to by one person : 
the journeys are long, and occasion a great deal of 
exposure to the sun. The time of giving tickets to 
the Society is very laborious. I am engaged inces- 
santly from eight o'clock in the morning till after 
evening service, about half-past eight. The Lord is a 
defence and help. I find the circuit rather disordered, 
and must find a remedy ; and I thank God our dis- 
cipline will be my director, as I feel assured that its 
foundation is the word of God, from whence it draws 
its power and usefulness. 

" Of the estates I visit, I may say more by and by. 
I am much pleased with the prospects at Yallows, and 
believe we shall soon have a good society there. The 
place is by far too small to contain the people, and I 
am intending to enlarge it ; and, as we expect assist- 
ance from home, and help on this side, we shall be 
able to attend to it a little more regularly. 

" March 30th, — In company with Mr. Tremayne, 
I have waited upon his honour the Gustos of the parish, 
to inform him of our intention to apply for license to 
preach in St. Thomas's in the East, and St. David's 
parishes. He gave us encouragement. 



154 



A MEMOIR OF 



"April To-day Mr. T. and I made application 

to the Quarter Sessions, and, after taking the usual 
oaths, obtained license. For this I am very thankful, 
and the Societies are gratified, and I hope will praise 
the Lord. 

" I have lately had a great deal of travelling, and 
feel the effects of the excessive heat. Twice I have 
fainted on the road within the last few days, and owe 
much to my servant Joe, who always travels with me, 
for his attention and care. I am now much debilitated, 
and have severe pains in my chest and head. But I 
am content, and only pray for grace to be faithful ; 
and, blessed be God, the prospect of work never af- 
frights or intimidates me. 

" I have just received the pleasing intelligence of 
the arrival of two missionaries, and their families, in 
safety ; one of whom I expect to assist me. May their 
lives be precious, and may their labours be abundantly 
successful in the conversion of souls ! 

" iSth, — Have been to Kingston to meet the district, 
to fix the stations of the brethren lately arrived, and 
have succeeded in having Mr. Kerr appointed to this 
circuit ; and I hope he will meet with no opposition 
from the magistrates, to whom we are about to apply 
for liberty to preach until the Quarter Sessions. The 
journey has been tiresome, but, thank the Lord, we 
are all safe, except my Sarah, who feels the effects of 
the climate, and is extremely debilitated." 

As soon as Mr. Jenkins had obtained additional help, 
however, he contemplated additional labours, as is 
evident from the following entries in his Journal : — 

"March 25th. — I have obtained liberty for Mr. Kerr 
to preach, and am about to leave home for about a 
fortnight, and intend visiting Bath, Manchioneal, and 
Port Antonio. The Lord give me a prosperous 
journey ! 

" I left this place (Morant-Bay) in company with 
brother Kerr, for Bath, March 28th, intending to call 
upon a magistrate in that quarter who is in some de- 
gree friendly to our missions. But the good opinions 
of worldly men seldom do us good ; at least they will 
not go an inch out of their way to serve us, and are 



THE REV. JOHN JENKIXS. 



155 



generally governed in their conduct towards us by the 
love they bear each other: for 'Uhe world will love 
its own." Of them, I thank God, I feel more inde- 
pendent than ever, and am determined never to court 
them by attempting to feed their vanity. Left Bath 
on the 29th for Manchioneal. The road was not so 
bad as I expected, although in many places narrow, 
rugged, and steep, and much too long for one stage. 
Many parts of the way are truly romantic, especially 
those that lie close to the edge of the foaming Atlantic, 
whose proud waves are stayed by the rugged and un- 
yielding rocks that shield this coast. Manchioneal has 
but a few houses, built without regularity. The chapel 
will hold about 500 persons, and is by far too small. 

" 30fA. — Visited some families, and in the evening 
met the leaders, who give a tolerable account of their 
classes, 

" May 1st. — Left Manchioneal at five o'clock, A.M., 
for Port Antonio. My mind rather depressed and as- 
sailed by the tempter, and my body fatigued and 
feverish from the labours of the Sabbath, and the want 
of sleep. I seem to shrink from going, unrecommended 
and unknown, to magistrates who have evinced a dis- 
like to our mission. The morning was rather rainy, 
and the road in many places was narrow and frightful; 
many miles being cut in the side of a rocky hill, at the 
base of which, about tijfty feet from the road, beat the 
Atlantic most furiously : but the God of Providence 
helped us. Arrived at Port Antonio about eleven 
o'clock A. M., and, having breakfasted, wTote some 
notes to the magistrates, informing them of the object 
of my visit, and requesting liberty to call upon them. 
Some serious persons got intelligence of my being in 
the port, and called to see me, and appeared exceed- 
ingly anxious to have preaching. One of the magis- 
trates expressed the same, and advised me how to 
proceed. Although I have not accomplished the ob- 
ject of my visit as I wished, yet I intend trying again, 
and, if possible, obtain the consent of the Quarter 
Sessions to open a place for preaching." 

The following is a note, which was probably from 
the chief magistrate, in reply to Mr. Jenkins's applica- 



156 



A MEMOIR OF 



tion ; and, as it is dated the 2nd of May, the day on 
which he left at day-break, I presume it must have 
been sent after him, to prevent further annoyance, by 
vi^hat the w^riter evidently wishes him to regard as 
fruitless applications : — 

Port-Antonio, 2nd May, 1825. 

I am this moment favoured with your note, 
mentioning that it is your wish to obtain permission to 
perform the functions of your office as a clergyman of 
the Wesleyan persuasion of Methodists. Several at- 
tempts has (have) already been made by clergymen of 
that persuasion to obtain permission to preach in this 
parish, which having been uniformly opposed by a 
majority of the magistrates, added to an unpleasant 
feeling which has taken place from recent occurrences, 
I fear it will be at present in vain for you to make 
your intended application. We have at present three 
clergymen of the Established Church in the parish, 
and only one place of public worship. 

" I am, with due respect, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

John Deans." 

The Rev. J. Jenkins.'' 

Thus it is that the wishes of pious souls, and the 
repeated applications of those who desire to afford 
them the bread of life, and "seek and save those who 
are lost," by bringing them to the Lord Jesus, may 
be disappointed by men who hold an authority that is 
contrary to the toleration act, which ought to travel 
with the British flag. 

" May ^nd," says Mr. Jenkins, " At day-break, I 
left Port Antonio for Manchioneal, and was forcibly 
struck with the affecting conduct of the Redeemer when 
he looked at Jerusalem and wept. 

Had considerable rain on the road, and no place 
of shelter. Very few parts have the convenience of 
taverns in this country, so that the stranger has no 
place for either rest or refreshment. On one of the 
most dangerous parts of the road my horse fell, and, 



I 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



157 



in attempting to rise, broke some of the harness ; so 
that the gig, drawn by one shaft, was nearly precipi- 
tated about fifty feet into the sea, which roared below. 
The horse went off at full speed ; the road was about 
eight feet wide, and nothing but death was before us. 
The boy, in jumping out, and attempting to lay hold 
of the bridle, fell, and at that instant the horse stopped 
on the very brink of the precipice. I got out with 
difficulty, and succeeded in getting the horse out. It 
was about half-past nine o'clock, and I was wet and 
faint, as the servants had taken secretly what I had in- 
tended to have taken with me.* However, v/e found 
an old halter, and, having tied the harness, we pro- 
ceeded, and about twelve o'clock reached Manchioneal, 
where we rested about two hours : and about six 
o'clock P. M. got safe to brother Tremayne's at Bath. 
But, finding by note that Mrs. Jenkins's indisposition 
had increased, I borrowed a horse, and arrived at home 
at ten o'clock, where I found my Sarah better than I 
feared. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is with- 
in me bless his holy name ! 

" May 3rd. — I have visited Morant estate. The 
children make a little improvement in knowledge, but, 
I fear, very little in their habits. The irreligious 
Negroes swear and quarrel dreadfully, and the children 
are suffered by such parents to do as they please. I 
am endeavouring to prevent this by remonstrance and 
advice, and hope I shall be able to prevail. 

12th, — Last night I returned from King'ston, to 
which place I w^as called by business. My journey was 
attended wdth some difficulty, as I had to ride twelve 
miles in very heavy rain, that swelled the rivers to a great 
height, and I apprehended danger from the rapidity 
of the stream, and the weakness of the horse, which 
was tired with his long journey. The Lord preserved 
us, although we were nearly carried away. I feel quite 

* The author rememhers a rather curious case of this kind' 
He had been ill ; had removed to the house of a friend in the 
country for the change of air, and taken a bottle of bitters with 
him made in wine, as the doctor had prescribed ; but, during the 
I first night, the two boys who waited in the house drank the 
I whole bottle of tonic mixture without either fear or shame ! 



158 



A MEMOIR OF 



feverish from the effect of the journey and the wet- 
ting. 

" June, — I have been to Coley since the date of my 
last entry, and find the people attentive, and some 
of them impressed. T expounded, to about one hundred 
and fifty, part of our Lord's sermon on the mount, and 
dwelt particularly on the wickedness of anger and li- 
centiousness — two sins to which they are dreadfully 
addicted. In these addresses I am of necessity obliged 
to be exceedingly plain and pointed. They assent to 
the truth of what I say, and promise amendment, and 
some of them I hope are sincere. However, I must 
labour on, and pray the Lord of the harvest to bless 
the seed, often'sown in tears, but always in great weak- 
ness. 

" Last Lord's- Day we were not able to have service 
from the violence of the weather. It was a day of 
thunder, darkness, and wind ; but I felt satisfied, and en- 
deavoured in patience to give my soul to diligent prayer. 
The rivers are quite impassable, and some persons in at- 
tempting to pass them have been drowned. The ships 
in the harbour seem much exposed ; ~a sloop has parted 
her cable and is on shore. 

" 6th. — No service last week, in consequence of the 
continuance of the rain, but yesterday many of our 
people forced the rivers, carrying the women on their 
backs ; so that the chapel was well filled, and about 300 
surrounded the table of the Lord, and Jesus was pre- 
sent. I gave tickets afterwards to two or three hun- 
dreds : after evening service I felt great oppression 
in my chest. 

"9th. — Yesterday I returned from a fatiguing jour- 
ney. In consequence of the late and continued heavy 
rains, I feared that brother and sister Kerr had suf- 
fered much in their temporary dwelling at Yallows, 
and I had also been prevented visiting Coley for a fort- 
night. I therefore determined to venture the fordings 
to visit Coley and Morant. I succeeded in crossing 
the first river (Morant) tolerably well, although I was 
much wetted, and also the second ; but, in returning, 
I was advised to try a part of the river, not so deep as 
at the other places ; but, probably through a mistake of 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



15§ 



my boy, I got into some deep holes in the middle of the 
river, where the current was running very rapidly, and 
I was nearly washed off my saddle. I reached the op- 
posite side, however, in safety, and not a little thankful 
to the Lord that he had spared my life. I had no pos- 
sibility of changing- my clothes until I got to Yallows, 
wet, weary, and faint, having rode about fifty miles over 
roads perfectly indescribable. 

" I have seen good at Coley. Some of the Negroes, 
impressed with what I said to them about marriage, 
have determined to attend to the ordinance. One man 
came to me, and desired I would talk to him about it, 
and told me he had been " too bad long enough," and 
wished me to tell him what he should do. This was 
in the midst of the people, just as I was concluding the 
service, and I then resumed the subject, and spoke to 
many of them personally. They seemed to listen with 
the greatest earnestness, and many of them were con- 
siderably affected. I hope for good in this place ; for 
I think God is beginning a good work among the peo- 
ple. I will pray and struggle on, and, blessed be God ! 
his word must prevail. 

" Mr. and Mrs. Kerr are better than I expected : 
and will, I hope, be kept in health. The society at 
Yallows is still doing well. I returned to this place 
with fever. Such exercises are more than my poor 
body can well bear ; but I dare not fear, for the Lord 
is my keeper, and in the path of duty I leave all to 
him. 

" Last night I met some of the classes, and felt it 
good to talk with the people, especially such as are 
fully alive to God ; and we have a few such among us : 
blessed be God ! 

" June \2tlL. — In consequence of the continued 
heavy rains I had but a small attendance at chapel 
yesterday. Lideed the rivers are so high and rapid 
that they are quite dangerous, and only tall, strong, 
resolute men dare attempt to cross them. But it was 
good to meet, although with but a few, in God's holy 
temple. 

" The crews of the ships in the harbour suffer ex- 
ceedingly from these seasons. The sailors are dying 



160 



A MEMOIR OF 



very fast ; some almost every day. One who was 
brought on shore I had an opportunity of visiting, and 
found him near death. I talked with him, and he 
prayed earnestly with me when I besought the Lord to 
forgive him his sins, and to fit him for heaven. The 
following day he was evidently worse ; but he told me 
he had been constantly engaged in prayer, and the 
Lord had heard him. I enquired how he knew. ' O,' 
said he, falteringly, and at the same time lifting up 
his enfeebled arms, ' he said, I will have mercy upon 
thee : I will save thee ; fear not. And I do not fear, 
I am not afraid ; for he has saved me/ The manner 
in which this was uttered affected me, and all in the 
room, to tears, and v/e kneeled around his bed, and 
gave thanks to God. 

" The next day he was still alive, but unable either 
to see or to speak, and was evidently in conflict with 
the last enemy, but he was sensible. I asked him if 
he knew who it was that v/as speaking to him : he 
moved his head, and I understood him. I asked him if 
he were still happy in God : he lifted up his hands as 
high as he could, and clasped them : they fell uponhis chest 
and in a few minutes he died. I entertain good hope 
that he is with the Lord. I am not acquainted with 
his relatives, as the ship left the next morning. 

" My dear Sarah, who has been so unwell as to 
require medical aid for some time, is now better : 
blessed be the Lord ! 

June ^\st. — ' The seasons' apparently are now 
over. Yesterday the attendance was better than the 
preceding Lord's-clay ; but only those who live on the 
Bay side of the river could be expected. I commenced 
the morning service with a severe pain in my chest, 
and with considerable difficulty went through the 
whole of the service ; and, although my spirits were 
much depressed, yet I felt liberty, and much spiritual 
comfort, while preaching from, ' I am crucified with 
Christ,' &c. I met some persons for tickets, and then 
visited some sick sailors, one of whom seems near 
another world. I felt affected while praying with 
them ; and I hope the Lord, in great mercy, will look 
upon these poor strangers in a strange land. Preached 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



161 



in the evening with much comfort to a good congrega- 
tion, but the pain in my chest is increased. 

" To-day I feel much debility after a restless, feverish, 
night. In this country how very soon the spirits sink, 
and how very little to raise them in the state of the 
climate, the inhabitants, or even the church of God ! 
Only in the Lord is help ; and, blessed be his name, 
his joy is my strength ! 

" June 2Sth. — I have for several days feared that I 
should have to state the death of Mr. Kerr, who has 
been exceedingly ill with fever ; but I now hope the 
Lord will spare him. I heard of his indisposition on 
Tuesday last, and almost immediately set off to see 
him. The rivers were very high, and the roads com- 
pletely washed away, to the depth of from twelve to 
twenty feet. I had frequently to alight, and once to 
lead my horse up the bed of one of the rivers. I 
reached Yallows, wet, fatigued, and anxious, and found 
Mr. Kerr in a burning fever, and very much reduced, 
and Mrs. Kerr very unwell. On the road, my mind 
^vas under a kind of impression to apply to a gentle- 
man in the neighbourhood to allow Mr. and Mrs. Kerr 
to be removed to his house ; and, when I saw them, 
I resolved to do so. Though -I was quite unacquainted 
with him, he most kindly assured me that his house 
was at our service, and that he should be happy to do 
any thing conducive to their recovery. I felt thankful 
to a gracious Providence for this kind interposition, 
and intended, if possible, to remove Mr. Kerr in the 
morning. The doctor approved of what T had done, 
and we procured a hammock, in which we effected 
his removal, after which he seemed much revived, 
and the fever left him ; but, soon after I left him on 
Thursday evening, the fever returned with very great 
violence. About twelve o'clock I was called to the 
house, and sent for the doctor, who thought there was 
imminent danger. However, in the morning, when 
I left, he was considerably better. I brought their 
little girl to the Bay with me. After the whetting, 
anxiety, and riding about that I have had, I had reason 
to expect fever myself ; and I was indeed very weak ; 
but the Lord was my helper and guide : and through 

p 2 



162 



A MEMOIR OF 



perils in the water, and on the road, and through 
weariness, and the burning sun, and torrents of rain, 
still he saves me. I ought indeed to be holy, and to 
spend my days in his service. Last Lord's-day I had 
a good congregation, and preached with liberty from 
the epistle to the church at Ephesus : but the rain was so 
severe, and beat with so much violence against the shin- 
gles of the chapel, that I was forced to desist till it abated." 

Under the same date Mr. J. wrote a letter to his 
sister, an extract from which will be interesting to 
those who regard his preservation amidst dangers and 
fatigues not commonly equalled even in the lives of 
missionaries, as an occasion for gratitude to God : — 

" The other day," says he, I had to ford a dread- 
fully rapid river, five or six times, that was very broad 
and deep ; and I procured a very tall, strong Negro 
to assist me, as he knew the best part to cross. When 
in the middle of the stream, I found it bearing down 
my horse, and the water was nearly over the saddle. 
I said, " William, do you think we shall be able to 
reach ; we are certainly going down ?" William re- 
plied, " You no fear massa ; keep good heart massa : 
Jesus no let you drown ; Him take care of you fob 
sake o'i^j^." I was encouraged by the poor man's re- 
mark, and got safely through. In some of the rivers 
the holes are very deep, say from six to twenty feet. 
My horse got into one, the depth of which I cannot 
tell ; but I was well drenched, though the God of 
providence preserved me. In many instances I have 
been forced to get off and lead the horse, on account 
of the trees and immense stones brought down, but 
have not taken cold, although in my wet clothes for 
many hours. You will, with m.e, give thanks to the 
Lord, for his constant care of me in this country of 
sickness, and danger, and death. 

" My boy, the other day, after eying me, as we were 
riding, for a long time, when I asked him the reason, 
said, " Massa face really look good ; it no look bit 
sick. Many minister have what massa do, dem dead, 
hei ! Massa really look well." You must take the 
testimony of this boy about my health, for it really is 



THE REV. JOHN JEXKIXS. 



163 



so. I was never better : yet, for all this, we know not 
what shall be on the morrow : for our life is as a 
shadow, which soon passeth away." 

These remarks will be but too fully confirmed by 
the following letter to the Rev. A. Barber:— 

Morant'Bciy, Sept, 15th, 1825. 
My very dear Quill, 

Although I was rather surprised I did not 
hear from you as soon as I expected after the time my 
letter must have reached you, yet yours came very 
opportunely. 

" In the beginning of last month I was called to 
Kinorston to meet the chairman on business connected 
with the mission, and, after a hard day's w^ork of 
travellino; in the sun, and catechisinor on an estate, I 
started for Kingston, about five o clock P. M., and I 
o^ot there early next morning" after restinsr- a little at 
a tavern : the distance is thirty -one miles, but of the 
roads you can form no conception. The first dav in 
town, we finished our work, and the following morning 
I went to Stoney-Kill (10 miles) to see Mrs. Croft 
(formerly Miss Harris, who came here with us), as she 
was ill. I felt myself quite unwell, with head- ache, 
sickness, and depression of spirits, the general harbin- 
gers of fever, but I paid no attention to them. I left 
in the afternoon much worse, and with great difficulty 
got to Kingston ; having twice lost the reins of the 
horse in a kind of stupor not to be described. When 
I got to the chapel-house the fever came on violently, 
and I required assistance to be taken to bed, at which 
tim.e I grew insensible, and was contracted from head 
to foot, by the cramp, I suppose. The doctor was in- 
stantly called in, but, not thinking of seeing v/hether 
I had fever, applied some remedies that removed the 
cramp, gave me some composing medicines, and left 
me. However, the fever increased most rapidly, and 
I got quite delirious. About twelve o'clock Mr. Tre- 
mayne sent and called the doctor again, who arose 
and came, and found me in a raging fever. He would 
have bled me, but it was too late, and he began with 
calomel, at a most violent rate : but no signs of change 



164 



A MEMOIR OF 



appeared, only for the worse. About seven o'clock 
next morning a physician was called in, who gave no 
hope of me, and Mr. Tremayne set off to the Bay to 
inform my dear Sarah of it ; and about twelve o'clock 
that day all imagined I must go in a very few hours, 
as the usual signs of the last stages of the fever began 
to show themselves — an inability to bear the least 
gleam of light or sound — green spots on the face and 
body — excessive vomitings — and depression of mind. 
Every body was anxious except myself ; for even the 
thought that my Sarah v/ould not see me alive did not 
depress me. However, about two or three o'clock the 
green spots began to grow pale, and the doctor hoped 
something, although I think he did not know what the 
alteration indicated, as he stated he never saw such a 
recovery. Next morning, quite early, my dear Sarah 
arrived, having travelled nearly the whole night, and 
found me able to look at her, and to tell her I was 
better. I continued to recover very fast, so that in a 
few days I lost the fever, and in the course of the fol- 
lowing week I was able to be taken a small distance 
in a gig. Just at the time the box containing the 
books, your kind and welcome letter, and the presents, 
arrived ; so that, if I then had been able to dance for 
joy and gratitude, I should have done so. I cannot 
tell you what I felt, and what I still feel, for the very 
handsome kindness of Mr. Simpson and his young 
people. Return them my sincere thanks, the thanks 
of my Sarah, and the thanks of hundreds of Negro 
children, who are made glad by their benevolence. 
I have related to you some few particulars of a Jamaica 
fever ; and, if you please, you may imagine my poor 
languid eyes, emaciated countenance, and enfeebled 
limbs, receiving, while lying on the sofa, a more than 
electrical shock of pleasure at the sight of your hand- 
writing. It braced up my strength, and made my eyes 
strain for sight. Indeed, I do think that at the time, 
to my constitution, it was better than any medicine 
that could have been administered. You were before 
me, and your dear Jane : I looked at you and wept, 
and found you gone. I thought for a moment you 
were not gone far, say a few streets' length, but 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



165 



" Mr. Tremayne took fever the day he left me, that 
terminated in a disease of the liver, which has occa- 
sioned his return to England: he lefl this place for Lon- 
don on the 10th instant. Mr. Kerr, my other colleague, 
has been ill for the last three months, so that I am left 
alone ; and I am only strong enough to do a little, 
with four chapels, and a society of 4000, in the midst 
of tickets. But, thank God, I am neither discouraged 
nor disappointed. I calculated upon these things be- 
fore I engaged in the work, and I hope always to 
hold fast and not to fear. I wish I had you near me, 
my Quill ; I want your advice and example to assist 
and quicken me. I must stop a little : it is five o'clock, 
and I have to preach at half-past six. 

" 9| P. M. — I am just returned from chapel, where 
I had a very good season, while preaching from the 
last two verses of the twelfth chapter of Hebrews. 

" I expect before this you are in a new circuit. The 
Lord give you and your Jane every blessing. 

" The ' resolutions' have made a great noise. I wish 
from my heart they had never been published ; but they 
never were designed to serve the purpose to which 
they have been applied. I would w^-ite you a history 
of them if I had time. 

" This place is of no small figure in the missionary 
field; as, most years, the majority of increase is in this 
island ; and, if the whole of the missionary stations 
equal our increase last year (973), there will indeed 
be a blessed and a large accession to our numbers. 

" Sept. 16th. — I intended to have finished this last 
night, but was unable, and will try to do it now. In 
a letter I received from my sister, some months since, 
she stated that William was gone to Gibraltar, but did 
not tell me for what, and left me to try my own con- 
jectures, and I could not tell whether I was to be glad 
or sorry at the occurrence. However, in one of the 
notices, I sav/ the object of his going, and my soul 
praised the Lord. When you write him, let me and 
my Sarah have a place in your -sheet, and request him, 
if he can possibly spare time, to write me a line or two. 

*' The mission in general is in a blessed state of 



166 



A MEMOIR OF 



prosperity, and, could we have help, I think very great 
thing's would be effected. Many openings present 
themselves, but our hands are so fully occupied that it 
is next to an impossibility to attend to them. In our 
Societies are very many holy, blessed people, whose 
experience and life testify that they are born of God. 
But we have not a few who prove far otherwise. 
The common sin in the land is fornication ; and we have 
frequently to put away persons from us for it : by far 
the majority of those who are excluded are excluded 
for this sin : thanks to cur countrymen for it ! There 
are indeed, comparatively, very few married people in 
the country : the object of the whites is money, and 
they like not the expense of a wife ; as they can get a 
black, or a sambo, or a brown, or a quadroon, or a 
mustee, or a mustefeua girl, when they like to take 
one, and they cost but little to keep them, as they 
esteem it an honour to live ' housekeeper,' as they 
call it, to a white gentleman : for a chimney-sweeper 
would be a gentleman if he came here, and without 
doubt would soon have his mistress. But I suppose you 
are not sufficiently acquainted with West-Indianisms 
to know the meaning of sambo, &c. &c. ; but they are 
the different approximations to white. The child of a 
mustefena and white is what is called white by law. 
It is common for proprietors of estates themselves to 
have a black woman as ' housekeeper.' 

" I am just setting off on a journey of between sixty 
and seventy miles, over roads on which, in England, 
you would think it cruel to drive pigs. 

" Farewell, dear Quill, 

" I am thy old sincere Friend, 

" John." 

Bad as are the effects of slavery, as noticed in the 
former parts of this memoir, its moral concomitants are 
still more lamentable, and doubly degrading. These 
chiefly consist in the unrestrained access which it af- 
fords the dominant v/hite to all the means of sensual 
gratification, and the Sabbaths being so occupied as 
almost to exclude him from public worship. This state 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS 



1G7 



of things is spoken of by Mr. Jenkins in the preceding 
letter, and Dr. Williamson confirms it in the foUo^ving 
extract from his work : — 

The manner in which Sur.day is spent will appear 
extraordinary, and very contradictory to the duties 
inculcated on that day. A great market is kept up by 
the Negroes, which is, in truth, also a market for the 
whites. The merchants attend at their stores and 
countinof houses, the service of the dav gfoinof on in 
the chm'ches : but they are very indifferently attended. 

'•A stranger is much surprised to observe the do- 
mestic attachments which many of the most respectable 
of the white inhabitants form with females of colour. 
A numerous offspring is frequently the consequence ; 
and it is remarked that these ladies become the greatest 
tvrants that can be imaofined. — so much so. that the 
most despotic in matrimony with our own colour have 
seldom reached such uxorian oppression."** 

A gentleman seldom marries in that country until 
he has formed such a relationship, and is the father of 
such a family ; for the white ladies will not marry 
until there is the prospect of keeping up a respectable 
establishment : and proprietors will seldom employ a 
menial who is a married man. The new-comer there- 
fore resigns himself to what he is taught to believe is 
his fate, ---to keep a concubine until he has obtained the 
mieans of returning home rich, to marry a rich wife ; 
or becominor a cr-reat man in the West Indies, and 
either continuing to live with his concubine, or abandon 
her and marry one of his own colour. This latter 
case is very frequent: and the coloured woman regards 
it as what she had reason to expect, and the white lady 
considers her and her children as no objection at all to 
an acceptance of the hand of her opulent suitor. The 
writer has known them provided for, and living on the 
same premises, in a state of very good neighbourhood 
with the white lady and her family. Sometimes, how- 
ever, they are shamelessly abandoned, and, if the 
mother were a slave, the children left in slavery. 

Dr. Williamson's description of the Sabbath is ap- 



* Observations," pp. 42, 43, of vol. T. 



168 



A MEMOIR OF 



plicable only to the towns. The country gentlemen 
spend their Sabbaths, in general, in visiting and dining 
with each other, — a custom to which the distance of 
churches, irreligious habits, and the want of domestic 
society and comfort, alike contribute. No society can 
appear more unsocial to an Englishman than West 
Indian society ; for, except the gentleman be a married 
man, females and children, owing to their colour and 
condition, are systematically excluded from the man- 
sion. Missionaries, when preaching in the country 
chapels, are frequently obliged to lodge in these 
mansions, and dine in these parties, or starve amidst 
exhausting labour ; and of course to have their heads 
filled with the ideas of mere planters, whose hospitality 
is proverbial, but who would not brook the " insult'*^ 
of their reproo fs. The writer's colleague once went 
into a hall of this description to dine, by invitation, on 
the Sabbath day, and found the party playing at bil- 
liards ! and he once seriously embroiled himself with 
his host by speaking against card-playing. The re- 
proof was resented as an insult,^'' 

The conducting of missions in such a state of so- 
ciety is a work of great difficulty, and the missionary 
much needs such cautions and encouragements as, about 
this time, Mr. Jenkins received in the following letter 
from the Rev. Mr. Morley, principal Secretary of the 
Wesley an Missionary Society : — 

77, Hat ton- Garden, London, Sept, 9th, 1825- 
" My dear Brother, 

" When I recollect the pleasing interviews I 
had with you in Bristol, and the hopes and fears I 
alternately had on your account — hopes arising from 
your zeal in the cause of God, and fears occasioned by 
considering your body unequal to the ardency of your 
mind — I am truly thankful to hear that you are strong 
to labour in the field of usefulness, and I say within 
myself, Is he as deeply humble, and as zealous, and 
as unreservedly and disinterestedly devoted to God as 
he was when I first knew him ? I trust you are, and 
that the longer you live the nearer you will live to 
God, and the more you exercise your talents the more 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



169 



you will find them to increase and nrmltiply. You 
have the honour of labouring in a fruitful part of the 
great vineyard : fruits you have already seen, and I 
trust they will "only prove first fruits before the 
abundant harvest. Yours is a situation of delicacy 
and difiiculty ; but God, I trust, will enable you so to 
conduct yourself that your profession may never be 
dishonoured, nor your usefulness in any degree lessened. 

"I would fill my letter with what we call news: 
but the Magazines, and especially the Notices, give 
you all that I could w^'ite, and much more : and the 
General Circular, which is just sent, wall give you a 
view of the general work, as well as of some particular 
symptoms of the state of the body. Thank God, the 
symptoms are favourable at present ; and I trust, ere 
long, it will be established and extended both at home 
and abroad. I am thankful to hear that IMissionary 
Societies and Sunday Schools are rising up in Jamaica. 
The missionaiies will, I hope, conduct them all with 
zeal and with prudence, and they will prove the means 
of furtherinof the ofood work in the island. 

" Wishing and praying that you may have health, 
and every blessing, and great success in your labour, 
I am, my dear brother. 

Your truly affectionate friend, 

" G, MORLEY." 

The introduction of missionary meetings, however, 
into the island of Jamaica, met with much opposition 
from the persons in authority, and to this opposition ]\Ir. 
Crofts refers in the following letter to Mr. Jenkins : — 

My dear Brother, 

" An answ^er to your kind and pressing letter I 
could not send last Friday, being at O' Harbour ; and 
now I know not but I shall be safely lodged in prison 
by Tuesday. I have found on my table a large packet 
of affidavits respecting our missionary meeting — preach- 
ing againstconfirmation — having service in church hours, 
&c. &c., with other documents, including a letter of a 
very threatening character fi^om his honour the Custos. 
I know not nor do I fear how this may end. I have 

Q 



170 



A MEMOIR OF 



been and am very unwell, but if we possibly can come 
you will see us at the time appointed ; but not for more 
than about three days. I have received no letter from 
our chairman, nor, alas! from England. Poor Miss 
Cottom died very suddenly yesterday, to whose fu- 
neral we are going : this, in connexion with copying 
affidavits, prevents my saying more, only that we love 
you, and pray for you daily, and will, if not absolutely 
prevented, come to see you. — Both of you accept our 
kindest love. 

" Spanish-Town, Nov. 4th, 1825. 

" J. Crofts.'' 

" Rev. John Jenkins " 

But, notwithstanding this opposition, they persevered, 
and had the approbation of the wise and good ; as i& 
evident from the following letter from one of the resi- 
dent clergymen, in reply to a request from Mr. Jenkins 
that he would attend one of his missionary meetings : — 

" Nov, 7th, 1825, 

" My dear Sir, 

" Your favour of the 5th inst. was handed to me 
yesterday. I hope you will do me the credit to believe 
that your missionaries have in me a warm friend, and 
that the success of your mission in this quarter of the 
world is an event in which I feel the most lively interest. 
Under these circumstances I should feel it not merely 
a privilege, but a duty, to stand forward on the ap- 
proaching occasion, and raise my feeble voice in behalf 
of your pious undertaking ; but, circumstanced as I am 
at present, and with very many difficulties surrounding 
me, into a detail of which it is unnecessary for me here 
to enter, I feel persuaded that, by so doing, I might 
not only render my services less favourable to your 
future interests, but moreover materially injure the 
cause of our common Christianity. 

"I should rejoice to meet your brethren on the 
interesting occasion, |and would esteem it a great fa- 
vour, if, in their return from M., they would spend a 
day with me in the mountains. — I can indeed say to 
you all, May the pleasure of the Lord prosper in your 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



171 



hands, and may you be the instruments, in the hands of 
God, of turning many souls from darkness to light, and 
from the dominion of Satan unto God. 

" With my best wishes, believe me, 
" Dear Sir, 

" Yours faithfully." 
" The Rev. Mr. Jenkins, Morant-Bay." 

" The following extracts from letters to and from 
Mr. Jenkins are interesting, as they show the spirit by 
which the obstacles peculiar to the West Indian 
missionary are overcome, and the zeal of the brethren 
to serve each other, and the cause of God : — 

"Albion Estate, Sth Nov. 1825. 
My dear fellow-sufferer, 

" O this Yallows river!— this dreadful Anti-mis- 
sionary river ! My dear M. and self were by its banks 
this morning at about seven o'clock, and met Edmund 
almost drenched, having just crossed. I made a mark, 
and in company with Mr. Kinnion visited it again at 
eleven o'clock, and found it more than a foot higher, 
with every prospect of its rising. Had there been any 
prospect we should have remained until three o'clock : 
as it is (O hard to say !) we must look back again. 
" Messrs. Younor and Duncan hired horse and drove 

o 

to the Eleven-Mile- Tavern, where we arrived before 
four o'clock yesterday. The report of Yallows river 
frightened them back even at dark. I could not be 
satisfied with a less degree of assurance than I now feel, 
and, putting myself into your place, I fancy all your 
anxieties are at the highest pitch. 

I have answered the Gustos. If you can meet with 
' The Advertiser' of last Saturday you will be disgusted 
and amused with the dress he has put upon me and 
our missionary meeting. 

Let me know how you get on, and what you wish 
by the next post. If in my power, I will yet come, 
should you have deferred your meetings. 

" Mr. Kinnion has behaved with remarkable kind- 
ness : I am glad to learn that you are excellent friends. 

" My dear M. condoles with her old shipmates. — 



172 



A MEMOIR OF 



Never were they so severed ! The thought of an 
eternal separation appears more horrible than ever. 
O let us live near to God ! In a short time we must 
all pass the cold stream. God Almighty grant us 
grace so to live that we may meet around his throne. 
That the great Head of the church may bless you, 
your dear Sarah, and all that you set your hands to, is 
the prayer of 

" Yours most affectionately, 

J. and S. M. Crofts.'' 

*' Rev. John Jenkins." 

Morant-Bay^ Jamaica, Nov, l]tk, 1825. 
" My very dear Friend and Brother, 

" I received your very kind letter of the 2nd of 
December, 1824, some two or three months since, 
which ought, I acknowledge, to have been answered 
immediately. But I assure you my engagements 
have been so numerous, and of such a nature, as 
hardly to allow me time for thinking or eating. The 
work on this side of the island is exceedingly laborious, 
and this year especially it is hazardous. The last dis- 
trict meeting appointed me to superintend the mis- 
sions in these parts ; so that I have the care of a society 
of 4000 members, and a circuit with four large chapels, 
with no local help except class leaders, and stretching 
along the coast, from the south-west, round the east 
point, to the north side of the island, a distance of 
seventy miles. You may very properly ask, what are 
seventy miles ? In your (yes, and, allow me to say, 
in my) happy country you have roads which are not 
to be compared with what we understand by that 
term here ; — they are, as we say, ' bad too much.' 

" You may not have heard that I am not long re- 
covered from a most severe sickness. I was directed 
to meet the chairman in Kingston, on some particular 
business about obtaining license in the country. The 
roads were very bad, ' the rivers were down' (a 
phrase which I will explain by and by), and I had to 
pass through one of them and lead my horse. I got to 
Kingston the following day, and took the worst kind of 
the dreadful yellow fever. My Sarah was at Morant- 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



173 



Bay, but I felt no anxiety. During the night the 
doctor was called in twice ; early in the morning the 
most eminent physician in Kingston was sent for ; but 
such was the violence and rapidity of the fever, that, 
before twelve o'clock, all hope of my recovery was 
abandoned, as many putrid spots began to appear.* 
However, the doctors persevered, plying me with 
calomel, until the spots first turned pale, and gave 
ground for hope. My Sarah was sent for, and my 
colleague, Mr. Tremayne, who was the bearer of the 
tidings, was so ill when he reached the Bay that he 
could only say, ' Mr. Jenkins is ill in Kingston,' and 
fainted. She found me just able to look and to smile 
at her. I recovered, to the astonishment of the doctors 
and eveiy body. Bless the Lord, I have something 
yet to do before my glass is run out ! O for faith 1 
for zeal ! for holy burning love to do it ! My Sarah 
has also been very ill indeed : for two or three months 
my leaving the country with her seemed imperative. 
But we left the Mission-house, which is represented as 
being very unhealthy, and removed to our present 
residence, which is large, open to the sea, and sheltered 
from the north winds, to which the other house was 
quite exposed, and to which its unhealthiness is at- 
tributed. 

Blessed be God, his work prospers, and we have 
at present ' the sound of abundance of rain.' There is 
a most unusual moving amongst us : the holy wind, 
which ' bloweth where it listeth,' seems to be felt by 
us all. The enemy is mighty, and seems to be girding 
on his armour : his aspect is direful as death ; he is oc- 
cupying his ' fortress of lies' in battle array ; but he 
must fall. God and his Christ shall have the victory, 
and ' reign for ever and ever !' Some of the most 
wealthy and secretly powerful are setting themselves 
against us : so much the better. 

" Missionary meetings were not held till this year in 
Jamaica : we have commenced, and calculate on much 

* Europeans have but little idea of the need of the most speedy 
and effectual help in these cases, as almost every thing depends 
on the success of the means employed during the first twelve, or 
at most the first twentv-four hours, after the attack. 

a 2 



174 



A MEMOIR OF 



good. Last year our increase of members was 
979, and I hope this year will be about the same 
number. 

" I have twice visited Port- Antonio, a place about 
sixty miles from this place, with a population of, I 
suppose, 2000, and a slave population within four 
miles of, I suppose, 6000. The door is now open ; 
but, what can we do ? We have no help ; our number 
is reduced to nine, and there is more than sufficient 
work for four times as many. I have written the com-^ 
mittee on the subject, but cannot tell what they will 
determine. 

" ' The seasons' this year (i. e. ' the former and 
the latter rain,' the one in May, the other in October) 
have been unusually violent. In May they set in with 
thunder, lightning, wind, and hail. The latter has not 
been seen here before, and the Negroes were dread- 
fully frightened, not knowing what it was, and sup- 
posing that it portended something dreadful : and, in 
support of the opinion that extreme cold produces the 
same sensation as extreme heat, I may remark that a 
Negress of some intelligence, in taking up a piece of 
the unknown in her hand, declared that it was ' hot too 
much,'* and that ' it burned her !' The rains were 
prodigious, and the ' rivers came down^ with such 
rapidity and violence that to cross them was to risk 
life. Here we have few bridges : in this part none. 
The country along the coast is very mountainous : we are 
very near the base of the Blue Mountain peak, the high- 
est part of Jamaica. The valleys are narrow kinds of 
gulleys, and the rivers, which at other times are small 
streams (not half so large as the Dart), rise horribly, 
and, supplied by the rains in the mountains, ravage all 
the plains, and spread ruin and death. Morant river 
(close to this place, from which it takes its name) is 
comparatively but a small stream, but its bed at present 
is nearly a mile wide ; and so of the rest. You may 
now be able to understand the phrase, ' the river is 
come down ;' the usual one for ' the river is impassable.' 
May seasons have been equalled by those of October. 
During the whole of this time my life has been in my 
hand, as my work often lay over these rivers. The 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



175 



great Head of the church has kept me, and has been 
' my shade on my right hand.' 

Nov, ^^rd. — I commenced this letter just as the 
packet arrived, that I might have it finished before it 
sailed ; and although I have to travel many miles to- 
day, and rivers to cross (and they are still very deep 
and rapid), and shall be exposed for five or six hours 
to an almost vertical sun, yet I must have a word or 
two v^ith my old tried friend. Would to God I could 
see him, and could have a little tattle with him ! But 
never mind : the stream of life is flowing by very 
rapidly, and there is a state and a city where friends 
shall never feel the pain of separation. To that world 
let us look ; for, there, you from happy England, and 
we from the land of slavery and darkness, shall meet 
together in the kingdom of our God. 

" In this parish (St. Thomas's in the East) we are 
blessed with pious clergymen, who go with us hand in 
hand in all good works. They catechise the Negroes — 
hold class-meetings — preach the truth — living them- 
selves to God. I w4sh I could say so of one more in 
the country beside them 1 

" Our colonial legislature has just commenced its 
sittings, and of this session much is expected in 
furtherance of the views of the British government. 
The subject they are now discussing is a bill to allow 
of slave -evidence in the trial of a white ; for you must 
know that slave-evidence has never been admissible in 
the trial of a white person. Our rector, and one of 
the senior magistrates (Thomas Thompson, Esq., a 
most decided friend of ours), have been cited to give 
their opinion of the knowledge of the slaves of this 
parish of the nature of an oath. How the matter will 
end I cannot say ; but I sincerely pray that the measure 
may be adopted, as it will lead to the instruction of the 
slave population. 

" Sunday markets, one of the curses of the land, are 
held in all the principal parts of the country, in conse- 
quence of the slaves having but one day in a fortnight 
to attend their grounds and raise their provisions. 
This time is probably sufficient for their cultivation, 
but then there is no time for them to attend market, to 



176 



A MEMOIR OF 



sell or to buy, but Sunday. I hear the Assembly in- 
tends taking into consideration the abolition of Sunday 
markets, and of course must give the slaves another 
day, i. e. one day in every w^eek besides Sunday. O 
w^hat a blessing would this be to the country ! O what 
facilities to the instruction of the people would it 
afford !* 

" The Bishop, I fear, will do very little : indeed he 
can do but little at present, as he has not the authority 
of an English bishop. This is at present, by law, ex- 
ercised by the legislature of the colony. However, 
he is trying to have these laws repealed, and similar 
ones to those in force in England enacted ; but I think 
he will have a difficult work, as every measure pro- 
posed by the British legislature is opposed, barely be- 
cause it is so proposed. 

" Nov, 25 ^ A, late in the evening. If I could sit and 
chat with you for a day or two I might probably satisfy 
my heart, and tell you matters in some sort of con- 
nected form ; but this is absolutely impossible at present, 
as I assure you I am forced to be a servant of all 
work in the most literal sense. 

Will you do me this favour ? I know you will. 
Procure for me any works you esteem of value — only 
they must be bound. The insects of this country 
destroy all unbound books. The conveyance is com- 
paratively easy. Get the books packed, and send them 
to the Mission-House, directed to me. You will, I am 
confident, do a poor missionary the kindness I have 
requested. 

" My dear Sarah has heard so much of your kindness, 
and that of my dear kind friend Mrs. Saunders, that 
she has many times wished to see you, and to tell you 
how much she feels obliged to you for your kindness 
to the lad whilst he was with you." — After requesting 
several favours, Mr. Jenkins concludes, " I am almost 
ashamed to send this letter, because I impose so much 
upon your kindness. But I think, who in England will 
think and act for me as you will do ! Your reward is 
with the Lord. — Fare thee well. It is now very late, 

* These hopes and wishes, however, have not been realized. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



177 



and I have to be upon the road by three in the morn- 
ing*. The God of Jacob bless you. — Amen and 
amen. 

Pray for us, and be assured I am, and always 
will be, 

" Your and my dear Mrs. Saunders's 
Most affectionate 

" John.'' 

Rev. Joseph Saunders." 

" Bellemont, St. Ann's, Nov. ^2nd, 1825. 
" Dear Brother, 

" I am sorry you have been disappointed in 
your meeting. Your heart, I know, has been much 
set upon it, and God will ' fulfil the desires of them 
that fear him.' Nothing would give me greater plea- 
sure than to visit and aid you in my feeble way ; but, 
the district meeting being so near, I cannot see it my 
line of duty ; but you may rest assured my spirit will 
be with you, 'joying and beholding your faith' and 
zeal for the Lord Jesus. I have twelve collectors en- 
gaged. — I have no news from Conference but the 
stations ; if I had, I would let you have a part. O, my 
brother, what a blessed work we are engaged in ! 
May the Lord make us faithful ! We are increasing 
here. — Do let me advise you to write to Mr. Drew 
when you have spare time, and, though much engaged, 
this you may have to write a spiritual letter. He is 
perhaps the most disinterested friend the West India 
mission ever had. He preaches the Sunday I am at 
St. Ann's Bay, in this chapel. I have much to write, 
but lament that my letters are necessarily so short, and 
so deficient of spiritual matter. 

Pray for, and believe me ever affectionately yours, 

William Ratcliffe." 

P. S. Our united love to Mrs. Jenkins. Our 
little girl, thank the Lord, is quite well. I thank you 
for your kind and repeated enquiries. I wish you had 
not so great an inclination to travel about. You may 
feel pretty well in doing so, but it is dangerous to 
health : I fear for you. You are not a Creole yet, nor 



178 



A MEMOIR OF 



a tropical Spanish friar , although you do wear a long 
surtout." 

" Aberdeen, February ^4th, 1826. 

" My dear Brother, 

" Your highly esteemed letter of the 16th of 
December came to hand, which I read with great in- 
terest, thankful to the great Head of the church that 
you were yet in the land of the living, but sorry that 
yourself and your partner had been unwell. I rejoice 
to hear that you have moved out of that house of death, 
and got into so comfortable and healthy a residence, 
and hope that divine Providence will preserve you and 
yours, and make you a blessing. Your wonderful 
doings surprise me— -overpower my imagination, and 
I hope that you may not travel too fast, for fear the 
reins or stirrups may break. I could not conceive it 
really possible that missionary meetings and candle- 
light service should be held in Kingston. We may 
say, ' What hath God wrought !' I am afraid that 
you will kill yourself, from what you say of visiting 
here and there, &c., and getting sick. Do take a 
friend's advice, and travel cautiously. Is it not, think 
you, pity but that your soul were either a little less, 
or your body a little bigger and stronger ? I was 
sorry to hear of Mr. Kerr's sickness, but hope he has 
recovered. I am truly happy to find that Mr. Thomp- 
son is still manifesting his good-will towards the mis- 
sion in so decided a manner. Hope that the Lord 
will reward him for his many acts of kindness to the 
cause of religion. I hope that Mr. T 's good-will has 
not been much impaired, and that Mr. S. continues 
pious and faithful. Please to offer my kindest regards 
to these gentlemen." — After some miscellaneous news 
respecting his circuit, which was " very trying to his 
West-India body," the writer concludes, — 

" Mrs. S. and I are much obliged by your kind 
wishes, and I can only say that I do not know any 
thing more gratifying than seeing you would be. 
However, we must be submissive to the will of a 
gracious Providence, who has cast your lot on the 
western side of the Atlantic, and ours here. But, if 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS, 



179 



we should meet again, I think it will afford us not a 
small degree of pleasure. Well, if we do not meet 
again on earth, I hope we shall meet each other at the 
feet of Jesus from day to day, and let us thus 'seek 
after glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life,' and 
we shall all meet under a milder clime, and in much 
happier circumstances. Mrs. S. will add a little : I 
shall therefore conclude, begging my kindest regards 
to Mrs. J., your colleague, and all the friends, as if 
named. 

" I am yours in Christian affection, and I cannot 
say what, 

John Shipman." 

" MontegO'Bay, March 14th, 1826. 
" My dear Brother, 

Although I am at this moment very ill quali- 
fied to write, yet I will try, if it be only to reproach 
your negligence. From the day we parted in Spanish- 
Town I have not enjoyed three days together good 
health. For some time past the intermittent fever, 
with paroxysms of ague, has shattered me very much : 
two hours since I was almost roasting. I feel that 
much patience and constant prayer are necessary. 
Our journey from Spanish- Town to Montego-Bay 
was attended with unpleasantries and dangers which 
brought back (in a good measure, I am persuaded) 
the fever, which kept us eight days at Bellemont. 
We were made exceedingly comfortable by Mr. and 
Mrs. Ratcliffe, and arrived at Montego-Bay the day 
fortnight we left Spanish-Town, unspeakably thankful 
for a home. A few disagreeables had to be settled, 
which is, I believe, an unavoidable case every where ; 
but, generally speaking, the work assumes a very en- 
couraging aspect, and I do hope that we shall not 
labour in vain. On the estates there are difficulties 
which probably are general, though I think better in 
some respects of Halse Hall than I did before I had 
seen these. I congratulate you on having obtained a 
helper ; but, had the meeting not appointed one to 
Falmouth, there would probably have been occasion 
for a fourth district meeting. I have found it neces- 



180 



A MEMOIR OF 



sary to be cautious in anticipations of success ; but at 
Falmouth there is almost every thing encouraging ; 
and I am fully persuaded that, were the claims of 
superior promise regarded, Falmouth would stand 
first among all our claimants. If we live, however, 
the matter will be proved. — The ire of the magistrates 
had been excited by some reports of my coming in the 
spirit of defiance, and I was summoned to a special 
meeting, where all ended well. 

" My dear Maria is looking much better, and, were 
it not for her anxiety respecting me, would improve 
faster. We have you in constant remembrance, and 
hope ere long to see you. Take care that you stand on 
the right side of " need" when you venture out with 
your poor ivife, however needful it may be for her to 
have a change. But you will say, ' Pho, never mind, 
lad, keep heart.' So we'll try to go in the right way, 
and hope to have a continual interest in your prayers. 
To Mr. Morgan and Mr. Beard I intended to have 
written. — Present our kind Christian love to Mr. M., 
and Mr. and Mrs. Beard. You are assured of our 
united affection. 

*'J. Crofts." 

" Rev. J. Jenkins." 

P. S. Remember us affectionately to Mr. and 
Mrs. Kerr, and the Morant-Bay friends." 



THE REY. JOHN JEsJKINS. 



181 



CHAPTER VI. 

Loss of the Maria Mail-Boat, — Letter of condolence 
to Mr. Jenkins from the Rev, Mr. Treiv. — Remarks 
on the removal of Missionaries. — Letter from the 
Rev. Mr. Crofts. — Letter from Stephen Drew, Esq. 
— Mr. Jenkins' s Removal to the Bahama Islands. — 
Shipicreck on his arrival. — Appointed to Turk''s' 
Islojid, — Illness and departure for Xew-York. — 
Sails for England. — Letter from the Rev. Mr. 
Morley, — Appointed to Pembroke, South Wales. — 
Letter from the Rev. Mr. James. — Letter from the 
Rev. Mr. Shipman. — Specimens of Mr. Jenkins's 
Poetry. — Appointment to the Scilly Islands. — Sick- 
ness, Death, and Epitaph. 

On the 28th of February, 1826, the Wesleyan 
mission in the West Indies experienced one of the 
most mysterious disasters which ever occurred to any 
mission, in the shipwreck of the IMaria mail-boat, on 
Sandy- Island reef, off Antigua, with five missionaries, 
two of their wives, and four of their children, on board ; 
all of whom perished except Mrs. Jones, the wife of 
one of the missionaries. jNIissionaries especially felt 
this as an awful stroke of an afflictive Providence, and 
the writer of this memoir participated deeply in the 
prevailing consternation ; for he had frequently passed 
the reef, and knew three of the sufferers. In losses of 
this kind, all the earthly relief we can expect or re- 
ceive is the sympathy and condolence of the wise and 
good. How acceptable, then, must the following- 
note have been to Mr. Jenkins, which certainly ought 

R 



182 



A MEMOIR OF 



to be placed on record to the honour of the clergyman 
by whom it was written : — 

" Wilmiyigton, April ISth, 1826. 

My dear Sir, 

" If you will send to the schoolmaster, he will 
deliver to your order twenty-four Bibles, which I set 
apart for that purpose yesterday. 

" Permit me to condole with you on the most af- 
llicting- intelligence which has been announced from 
Antigua, relative to the awful calamity which has 
befallen your brethren, their wives, and children. 
This is one of those mysterious events which are inex- 
plicable to man, though doubtless it is designed for 
furthering the great work of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
How greatly to be pitied are the poor people who 
were wont to sit under their ministry ! It may please 
God that this event may preach more effectually to 
their hearts than your brethren could have done, had 
they been spared to exercise their ministry for a longer 
season. Amidst these heavy trials which have fallen 
upon the people of Antigua, what have not we reason 
to be thankful for who are yet spared ! and what have 
not the people of this parish reason to be thankful for, 
w^ho have the light of truth still exhibited before their 
eyes in all its cheering consolations, and in all its ful- 
ness ! May we then remember, and labour while it is 
called to-day, and be looking more and more for the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord's work 
may prosper in our hands. 

" I hope Mrs. J. is quite well, and that Mr. Morgan 
no longer gives way to despondency. This melancholy 
event should rouse him to action, and every one of us, 

" With Mrs. Trew's kind regards, believe me, 
" My dear Sir, 

" Sincerely yours, 

''J. M. Trew." 

The affectionate familiarity which generally exists 
among missionaries, and the attachment of their societies 
to them, makes removal especially painful; and it is 
frequently too unconditionally required even when the 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



183 



occasion may have been such as to justify every ap- 
pearance of an absolute requisition on the part of their 
employers ; for the three months required to exchange 
letters at the distance of 4000 miles is a space sufficient 
for that health which, at the time of writing, appeared 
to be irreparably lost, to be providentially restored. 
The writer speaks feelingly on this subject. With 
some such feelings as are found expressed in the 
following letter, he was obliged to leave the West 
Indies, owing to an unconditional appointment for 
British North America, dictated by the best of feel- 
ings on the part of the Missionary Committee, but 
which he is persuaded they would have repealed had 
they been acquainted with the change in his health 
which had so happily occurred during the correspond- 
ence. In these cases all the latitude ought to be 
allowed to the foreign district meetings which the ar- 
rangement of the committees in England for the other 
parts of the mission field will permit. The following 
letter on this subject is equally honourable to the writer 
and to Mr. Jenkins : — 

" Montego-Bay, June 21th, 1826. 
" My dear Brother, 

" I have for some weeks expected to receive a 
letter from you, but my washes have not been gratified in 
this respect. Perhaps you do not consider the few lines 
which 7ny dear M. wrote your dear Sarah as exonerating 
me at all from replying to your last of March 20th ! 
I can scarcely hold my saucy pen, which is more than 
half inclined to give you a gentle dash. I cannot teil 
what a week, yea a day, may bring forth. I fancy 
that this day, probably, the brethren (and you amongst 
them) are deliberating about those affairs which ac- 
cording to our views have thrown a sombre hue over 
a part of this district. I refer to our dear brother 
Young's removal to a cold climate, in connexion with 
its cause and probable consequences. I am through 
mercy much better, and now Mr. Murray is arrived 
must look for something decisive to be done. I say 
decisive, because I have been in suspense since the 
hour I received the Committee's order. First, my own 



184 A MEMOIR OF 

sickness and its precarious issue ; Secondly, Mr. Mur-* 
ray's arrival, which had been almost given up ; Thirdly^ 
Mr. Young's removal, in the event of which it was 
said I must remain ; and, receiving from brother Young 
information that he had taken a passage, and was to 
sail for ' New York' as yesterday, I v/as looking with 
anxiety for something final by the last post, in which 
I have been altogether disappointed, for I have not 
had a line ; so that I am still unsettled, after nearly five 
months' residence here ; and may probably receive in- 
formation next week that this station is to be supplied 

by brother , and that I must look toward Turk's 

Island or somewhere e)se. I want to say from my 
heart, " The will of the Lord be done ;" but to me 
there appears a cloud surrounding this appointment 
which prevents my seeing it clearly to be the will of 
God : for, if I judge of it by Mr. Wesley's criterion, I 
think I should unhesitatingly say, I can neither be more 
holy, more happy, nor more useful ; perhaps altogether 
otherwise. I hope I am so far above mere worldly 
motives as not to imbibe a prejudice against the place 
because the people are poor. I do not however like 
there being so few, about 800 ; whereas there are in the 
parish of St. James's about 32,000 or 33,000 souls. I 
cannot ascertain much about the comparative healthi- 
ness of Turk's Island, which is little more than four 
degrees farther north. New Providence, and those 
islands which are out of the tropics, must be considerably 
colder at one season of the year than this climate. You 
have not said any thing to me as to your own views ; 
and, as the mandate of the Committee is so imperative, 
perhaps you thought there was but one way, and you 
would leave me to be driven into it without putting any 
additional obstacle in my way by exciting feelings 
which must ultimately be lacerated. It would be well 
if we could only feel for others, and forget ourselves — 
rare attainment ! 

" I am now able to attend to nearly every part of 
the work of my circuit, and such is its present state that 
some decisive and vigorous measures are necessary to 
render the feeling which through the goodness of God 
has been excited subservient to some valuable purpose. 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



185 



I have lately commenced candle-light service, and the 
chapel has overflowed by nearly one-third of those who 
came for admittance. All has been peace as yet, and 
great joy is felt throughout the community : every ipew 
is taken except one, and the number of applicants is 
daily increasing. Advantage should be taken of ihl^ 
feeling, and the issue v^^ould be a fine chapel, and a 
different dwelling. If people have no prospect of 
being accommodated, they will soon of course cease to 
come near the place. There are a few sturdy subjects 
who talk very obstinately, and threaten to leave, &c. 
&c., if they are ' to be treated,' they say, ' in this man- 
ner i. e., if Turk's Island is to be regarded as of 
greater importance than their station. I have showri 
them the unreasonableness of their remarks, and have 
fear only of one ; but he is as a host among a number 
of females. I know that you feel for us and pray for 
us, and the degree of resignation that we feel is partly 
in answer to the prayers of our dear friends, I have no 
doubt. Both myself and my dear wife feel such a de- 
gree of submission to this dispensation that, if you will 
look at page 25 of the book of Psalms and Hymns, you 
will find the language of our desire. We find, however, 
that, though the spirit is through grace willing, the 
flesh is weak, and at times shrinks from the prospects: 
before us ; and now and then disappointment causes a 
temporary war : but Jesus reigns within, and I trust we 
shall see his salvation. I have not thought it safe to 
do or say any thing with a view of being detained in this 
island, though I have never yet wished to leave it but 
for the sake of my dear M.'s health. My mind has had a 
variety of exercises, since the district meeting especially ; 
of some you know ; but up to the present time I have 
found almost every week some fresh occasion for the 
exercise of forbearance and charity in reference to my 
good brethren. Mr. Orton is an excellent man, rather 
of the primitive stamp, and somewhat original, in dis- 
position resembling Allen, i. e. in some particulars. 
I have reason to think that he did not come from the 
south side with very favourable views of his colleague ; 
and through your forgetfulness, or some mishap, I hml 
no official information whatever, and knew not that I 

R 2 



A MEMOIR OF 



had any thing farther to do with Fahnouth after Mr. O* 
arrived, until I was told by Mr. Ratcliffe after a day or 
two of intercourse ; and I had reason not to exult much 
in my new office. I have, however, been somewhat 
agreeably disappointed, and we go on quite comfortably 
at Falmouth. The prospects are very cheering, and 
we hope to be able to give a good account at the next 
district meeting — we, I say, you see how I forget my- 
self. Well I must confess there are a few in the island 
whom I love sincerely, and you and your dear Sarah 
have not the lowest place in our esteem ; often do we 
talk of you, scold you, and threaten what we'll do if 
you don't write oftener. I trouble some of the crabbed 
ones with postage for their stinginess. Such lengthy 
epistles as this I cannot repeat to you every day. I 
hope you will in future be a better boy, Johnny. — 
Should I remain, and have our missionary meetings in 
July or August, will you try to come down ? When 
I bade you mind and be on the side of " need,^^ I meant 
no discouragement to your dear wife's coming — if you 
were to come without her (if she could at all travel), 
your old friend Maria would look upon you as she 
never yet did. Have you a pair of sacramental cups, 
&c. &c., to dispose of? Our steward (for himself) 
wishes to know the price. Write — do — next post. 
Tell us the news for the last quarter of a year. My 
dear M. joins me in affectionate regards to Mrs. Jenkins, 
and will allow you your share of the same, as well as 

^' Yours very sincerely, 

'^J. Crofts.'' 

Rev. j. Jenkins.'* 

The following letter from Stephen Drew, Esq., to Mr. 
Jenkins^ will show that he and his friends were under 
similar apprehensions in reference to his removal. It 
may also account for much of the toleration which, 
during this time of severe persecution, was extended to 
the extraordinary exertions in w^hich he and his bre- 
thren were engaged, on behalf of the Wesleyan Missions. 
The countenance of such men as the writer can only be 
properly appreciated by those who need their influ- 
^nm and protection ; and such will be the most ferveM 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



187 



iin tBeir ascriptions of praise to God, who has generally 
raised up a few such men as " the saints in Caesar'^S 
household," to defend and encourage his persecuted 
servants. It was evidently written in reply to one from 
Mr. Jenkins, requesting his assistance at his approach- 
ing missionary meetings : — 

" Bellemont, Sf, Ann's, I3tk Sept. 1826. 
" My dear vSir, 

" I am very sorry that your missionary meetings 
at Bath and Morant-Bay are so fixed that it is impos- 
sible for me to attend them, or otherwise, I assure you, 
I should have felt the greatest pleasure in being with 
you. I earnestly hope you will have a glorious time of 
it, apd that your praise may resound throughout the 
churches. The matter that prevents me is this, that 
next Thursday (the 21st) I set off from hence, with 
Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliffe, for Montego-Bay, to attend his 
meeting ; and I am in such a poor state of health that it 
is absolutely impossible for me to be with you and re- 
turn, nor indeed would the time allow it. I got very 
wet last Sunday week ingoing to St. Ann's Bay to hold 
service for Mr. R,, and also in returning the next day, 
which has occasioned my being ill ever since ; so that it 
was with great difficulty I could officiate here on Sunday 
last. I am getting better, however, though weak. The 
time of appointment (5th Oct.) will also prevent my at- 
tending Spanish- Town, though I could have been there 
had the meeting been after the second Wednesday in the 
month, when my magisterial duties will be over. It is 
to be lamented that these meetings are not settled by 
general consultation, to prevent their .interfering. I 
saw a letter of yours to Mr. R. this morning, and am 
rejoiced to find that with you the missionary spirit has 
not evaporated. It is a blessed work when conducted 
with a right intention. I am indeed sorry there should 
be a thought of your removal ; but the Lord will be w^ith 
you, so that you will feel in him an all-sufficiency. 
May he be your protector and your portion, wherever 
it is you are to go ; but I still hope you will not be re- 
moved. I am greatly rejoiced to find that your health 
mi\ strength are so fully restored to you, and that jenf 



188 



A MEMOIR OF 



heart as well as powers is so determined on our Mas- 
ter's service. Oh ! it is a blessed one in its work and in 
its reward, having the encouragenient and honour of 
being workers together with him in the best of all em- 
ployments, drawing from him momentarily fresh sup- 
plies of sanctifying grace, enjoying peace and joy 
unspeakable, hope full of glory, and a pledge and ear- 
nest that assures the final possession of that gift of 
everlasting life which shall be the crown of those who 
shall be kings and priests to God for ever. ---May we 
all strive to run, to persevere, and to attain. 

" Pray remember us kindly to Mrs. Jenkins. Mrs, 
Drew desires her kindest lo\e to her. May you have 
all happiness and health ; and believe me, dear sir, 

" Faithfully yours, 

" Stephen Drew." 

Mr. Jenkins's removal appears to have been con- 
templated under an idea that his health had suffered 
so materially from his extraordinary labours, the influ- 
ence of the climate, and repeated attacks of disease, that 
his recovery in Jamaica was hopeless ; and, as in the case 
of Mr. Crofts, the requisition appears to have been 
such as to be capable of only one construction : and in- 
deed, when it is recollected that the places of sick mis- 
sionaries must in general be immediately supplied from 
home, there is great difficulty in conducting missions 
on any other principle but that of absolute arrange- 
ment ; a consideration which, under the influence of 
feeling, is too frequently lost sight of by devoted mis- 
sionaries and their sympathising friends. Mr. Jenkins's 
health had improved, but this probably v/as not known 
in England w^hen arrangements were made for his occu- 
pying a station in Turk's Island, and for his place being 
supplied ; or, if it were, the committee might intend 
to place him in circumstances more favourable to the 
preservation of his health, though at some little expense 
of feeling on his part, and on the part of his friends. 
His friends protested both verbally and by correspond- 
ence with Mr. RatclitTe, the chairman; but, as his 
removal was the act of the committee in London, re- 
monstrance at the distance of 4000 miles was quite inef- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 189 

fectual. All that the society could do was to submit to 
what they regarded as an afflictive dispensation of 
Divine Providence, and express their g-ratitude and 
affection to Mr. Jenkins at his departure. This 
they did in a meeting specially convened for the pur- 
pose, at which it appears his colleague presided. The 
following is a copy of the minutes of that meeting, found 
among Mr. Jenkins's papers : — 

" Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Leaders, ^c, 
of the Morant-Bay Circuit, held in the Vestry of 
Morant-Bay Chapel, Jamaica, Oct, 26th, 1826. 

^'Question 1st. — For what purpose is this meeting 
convened ? 

*' Answer, -'-TIsivmg heard that our much esteemed 
and highly respected Superintendent, the Rev. John 
Jenkins, is about to be removed from us, we feel per- 
suaded that it is our duty to present him with some 
memorial of our gratitude and affection. 

^'Question 2nd.— How can this be most satisfactorily 
carried into effect ? 

" Answer.— 'luetihe Rev. T. C. Morgan, ourpreacher, 
and Mr. C. Robinson, our Circuit Steward, be respect- 
fully requested to present the Rev. J. Jenkins with 
the following address :— 

" Methodist Chapel, Morant-Bay, Jamaica, Oct. 
26th, 1826. 

" Rev. and Honoured Sir, 

Having heard that you are about to be re- 
moved from this circuit, we feel ourselves bound, by 
every principle of gratitude and affection, to address 
you on this painful occasion. 

"We hailed your appointment to this circuit as a spe- 
cial favour conferred upon us by the Great Head of 
the church, and, during, the period of nearly two years, 
which you have laboured among us, our expectations 
have been fully realized, and our hopes fully confirmed. 

" We thank you, sir, for that zeal and perseverance 
with which you have promoted the temporal interests 
of this circuit, and especially for the successful efforts 
you have made in procuring us a burying-ground. 

" But; while we feel thankful for your exertions in 



190 



A MEMOIR OF 



promoting our temporal interests, we are satisfied we 
can never be too thankful for that pastoral care 
with which you have watched over our souls. Rest 
assured, sir, your fidelity as a preacher, and your solici- 
tude as a pastor, will not easily be erased from our 
minds : and, since we are now about to be deprived of 
your valuable labours, we earnestly request a continued 
interest in your prayers. 

And now, sir, we commend you, and your amiable 
partner, to God and the word of his grace.— May the 
promised presence of Christ go with you, and abide 
with you ! May your valuable life be long preserved, 
and in the day of Jesus Christ may you be able to say, 
in reference to thousands of immortal souls, ' Lord, 
here am I and those thou hast given me !' 

Reluctantly we must now say, farewell, sir, fare- 
well. O may we all meet you in heaven ! This is, 
and shall be, the prayer of, 

" Rev. and dear Sir, 
" Yours most obediently and affectionately, 
" T. C. Morgan, Preacher. 
" Charles Robinson, Circuit-Steward." 
Signed also by thirteen Leaders. 

Mr. Jenkins left Jamaica on the 16th of November 
for Crooked-Island, a passage of about 200)^ miles, in 
the "Lord Hobart" packet. His "passage proved a 
very disagreeable one ; but, on the 1st of December, 
they arrived at Crooked- Island, took leave of the cap- 
tain and passengers, and the packet left for England. 
They remained a few hours on shore, and then went 
on board the mail-boat, and sailed for New- Provi- 
dence, and at two o'clock the following morning they 
were shipwrecked ; but, happily, though the vessel 
and many of the things on board were lost, the lives of 
all on board were graciously preserved. The follow- 
ing is the account of this catastrophe from the " Mis- 
sionary Notices" of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, 
for May 1827:— 

" Bahamas, — Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have suffered 
shipwreck in passing from Jamaica to these islands ; 
but our friends will cordially unite with us in gratitude 



THE REY. JOHN JEXKIN5. 



191 



to God for the ultimate escape and safety of the whole 
of the passengers and crew. Mr. Jenkins has detailed 
the occurrence in a letter to his father, dated Nassau, 
December 13th, 1826, from which the following -is an 
extract. — After noticing his appointment to the Ba- 
hamas, he says, — 

" ' We sailed from Jamaica in the Lord Hobart 
Packet, for Crooked-Island, on the 14th ult., and, after 
a very tedious and perilous voyage, landed on the 1st 
December, and found the packet-boat ready to take 
the mails and passengers for Nassau. And now I am 
approaching a period that never will be forgotten by 
us or by you, and that will, I trust, lead us to be more 
than ever thankful to the God of our lives. We have 
indeed been brought low, but the Lord has helped as. 
I cannot reflect upon the dreadful scenes of that fearful 
night without shedding tears of gratitude. 

" ' About eight o'clock in the evening of the first in- 
stant we weighed anchor, the weather looking very 
gloomy ; and, an exceedingly strong current running 
from the north-west, the vessel was put under easy 
canvass, but still ran at the rate of seven and a half 
knots an hour. The captain, w^ho is one of our friends, 
remained on deck, that a good look-out might be kept, 
as the channel abounds Vvith shoals, &c. About twelve 
o'clock the weather became more dark and squally, 
and the sea frequently broke over our weather quarter. 
My wife and myself took our lodging on the floor of 
the steerage, as the cabin vv^as exceedingly small, and 
there were two other passengers on board. At ten 
o'clock a heavy sea fell upon the quarter-deck, and 
rushed through the cabin upon us in the steerage ; so 
that our mattress was very much wetted, and the lee 
side, where our trunks were, was flooded. Previously to 
this I had fallen asleep for about a quarter of an hour, 
but my vvife, who was very apprehensive of danger, 
could take no rest. We now encouraged ourselves 
in the Lord, and longed for the day. About a quarter 
before two the captain came belovvs for the purpose of 
getting soine dry linen, and, in answer to an enquiry, 
he stated we were doing very well. But, in about 
twenty minutes afterwards, the vessel struck ! Mrs. J. 



19^ 



A MEMOIR OF 



started, and asked what was the matter. I endeavoured 
to quiet her fears, and ran upon deck, when the sloop 
struck again. I then got below, and, taking my wife 
in my arms, bade her prepare to meet our Father and 
God. The vessel then struck several times violently, 
and got fast, turning her broadside to the weather. 
The waves now^ almost incessantly washed over us, 
and I again, after requesting Mrs. Jenkins to get some 
clothes, if possible, about her, went on deck, and was 
the first to discover land over the larboard bow ; but 
the darkness was intense : neither stars nor moon were 
to be seen, nor any thing but a black frow^ning rock, 
and the foamings of the sea. We prevailed upon one 
of the men to try to get on shore ; he succeeded, and 
in about five minutes we heard the reviving sound of 
' land ! land !' I went again below, and found my wife 
quite composed. We then commended ourselves to 
the God of our lives, and began to prepare to reach 
land, and by the assistance of the men we got 
through the waves to the rock. We found it to be 
about thirty feet long by twenty wide. Here we sat 
down, and presented our case to the Lord, and felt 
perfectly resigned ; my wife in her night-gown, and 
pelisse, and bonnet ; myself in trousers and coat. The 
rain fell in torrents, and the sprays of the surf beat 
over us (for the rock was only about fifteen feet high), 
whilst the sharp points of the r3ck pierced our skin. 
We hoped at the time of landing that the tide was 
ebbing, but in this we were disappointed ; we sat 
watching every successive wave going upon our little 
rock. No person on board knew where we were, and 
we began to creep along on our hands and knees to 
ascertain if this rock were connected with any other. 
One of the passengers, at last, found a neck about a 
foot and a half wide, which attached the rock on which 
we were to another that appeared higher and larger. 

' As the tide w as rising, our moments were precious, 
and we began getting over, and at length succeeded, 
with our ancles and hands much cut ; but, blessed be 
God, he left us not to perish. We found the tide still 
gaining upon us ; but two of the passengers set forward 
to try if this second rock were connected with main 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



193 



land, and in about half an hour they got to a beach, 
above which there was bush. They soon communicated 
the tidings to us, and, having a lighted cinder from the 
vessel, we got over the remainder of the rock to the 
beach. Here we fell upon our knees on the wet land, 
and gave vent to our feelings in praise and prayer. 
The men, after gathering a few sticks for us, with 
which we lighted a fire, returned to the vessel, that 
was now much nearer the rock ; and brought a blanket, 
in which Mrs. J. wrapped herself, as the rain was still 
falling in torrents. O who can describe the feelings of 
our hearts while with the other passengers we sat round 
our little fire ! I thought of our divine iVIaster. ' He 
had not where to lay his head.' I thought of Paul 
sitting before the fire the barbarians had kindled for 
him. I thouorht of the beloved brethren lost off An- 
tigua, and my heart melted within me. Day at length 
discovered to us that we w^ere upon a part of Long 
Island, but there were no inhabitants within several 
miles of us : and now, for the first time, we discovered 
the dangers we had escaped ; for, had we not struck 
upon the point we did, w^e must have been, to all ap- 
pearance, inevitably lost. Had the vessel been steered 
or drifted half a point nearer the main land, we must 
have struck upon some tremendous reefs. 

I have not time or room to detail more at present, 
but that w^e got on board a boat sent to assist us across 
the harbour, and, about four o'clock in the afternoon, 
wet, almost naked, w^ounded, weary, and faint (for we 
had neither water nor food all the time), but thankful 
for our escape, we reached the house of the hospitable 
Mrs. Taylor, who, with her affectionate family, did 
every thing that could be done to make us comfortable. 
I\Iay the blessing of them that w^ere ready to perish 
abide upon that family ! We got on board the Harle- 
quin sloop, and sailed on the Monday following ; and, 
after touching at several islands, reached this place on 
Friday afternoon, and found Mr. and Mrs. Horne and 
family well." 

Referring to this event, Mrs. Jenkins remarks, 
The next morning it was an affecting sight to behold 
s 



194 



A MEMOIR OF 



the beach covered with things saved from the v^reck. 
About nine or ten o'clock my dearest husband was 
obhged to retire to his room and bed, as the fever and 
ague returned, through his being exposed to the wet 
and cold. There is no minister on the island ; and it 
was very affecting to see the people waiting from ten 
o'clock A. M. to four P. M., expecting Mr. Jenkins to 
lose the fever, and be able to preach to them : but he 
was unable to leave his bed until the next morning, 
when we left Mrs. Taylor's, where we had been 
treated with the greatest kindness, and again returned 
upon the mighty deep. In the afternoon we got in sight 
of Rum- Key. Near this island there is a very 
dangerous reef that runs into the sea, and, between 
seven and eight o'clock, we got very near it : the cap- 
tains thought we were out of danger, but I felt very 
uneasy, and requested Mr. Jenkins to get Captain 
Gould to sound. He thought it quite unnecessary ; 
but, to quiet my fears, he did heave the lead, and in- 
stantly discovered danger. They put the ship about, 
but she was thrown on her side, and they feared she 
w^ould not right again, but, through the mercy of God, 
she did. About eight o'clock we went on shore, to 
the house of the magistrate, Joseph Dorsett, Esq., who^ 
with his lady, is a member of our Society. Mr. D. 
was in bed, but immediately h^e dressed himself, and 
received us with the greatest affection and delight, 
Mrs. D. v/as gone to Nassau (150 miles) to be con- 
fined, as they had no doctor on the island. They had 
neither chapel nor minister; but Mr. D. assembled the 
people in his own house, and held service, reading Mr. 
Wesley's sermons, singing, and Mrs. D. and himself 
joining in prayer. Mrs. D. was a Leader in Nassau 
before her marriage. When they wished to attend a 
love-feast, or partake of the Lord's supper, they were 
obliged to go to Nassau. On Tuesday we sailed 
again, and on our way touched at Cat-Island. Cap- 
tain Thompson went on shore, as it was the place 
where his house and Negroes were ; and, when he 
returned, he told us that the people were very anxious 
for Mr. Jenkins to go and baptize their children, but 
the captain could not remain. We arrived at New- 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



195 



Providence on Friday afternoon, December 8th, and 
vi'-ere gladly received by our much-esteemed and be- 
loved brother Horne and family. We remained in 
Nassau seven weeks ; while there Mr. Jenkins laboured 
beyond his strength, but was made a blessing to the 
people ; and at the district meeting our appointment 
was changed, and Mr. Jenkins was sent to Turk's- 
Island, about 500 miles from Nassau. We left our 
kind friends at New-Providence on the 24th of January, 
and reached Turk's-Island on the 31st. It is impossible 
to describe the feelings of the people on our arrival, 
as they had been deprived of a missionary for more 
than fifteen months. The chapel is the best in the 
Bahamas ; the pulpit was hung with black for the 
Rev. Mr. Turtle, who finished his work there, and 
entered into the joy of his Lord, The Society had 
kept together, though at times the}^ feared they were 
forgotten by the Missionary Committee, and that they 
should not again hptve the unspeakable happiness of 
welcoming a missionary to Grand- Key. They soon 
unhung the mourning from the chapel, and I think we 
had not been there more than a fortnight before nearly 
every respectable famil}^ called to bid us welcome to 
the island. We went with the intention of remaining 
two or three years, if the Lord sav/ good ; the people 
expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with the ap- 
pointment, and blessed and profited under the faithful 
ministry and pastoral care of Mr. Jenkins ; and he 
not only discharged the duties he owed to the church, 
but he also instructed the youth in reading, writing, 
arithmetic, grammar, <&c. &c. All appeared to be 
going on well. He laboured among them five or six 
weeks, and, hearing that the captain with whom we 
sailed was very ill, Mr. J. got a horse and rode to the 
other side of the island to see him, and, soon after his 
return home the same evening, he was taken very ill. 
The physician was sent for, and he paid him every at- 
tention day and night ; but, as he despaired of his 
life, he decided on our leaving for England without 
delay. Mr. Jenkins replied, ' Though I love my wife, 
and the church, I can freely give up all to be with 
Jesus;' and he requested to be interred near the Rev. 



196 



A MEMOIR OF 



Mr. Turtle. The doctor, however, continued urgently 
to advise our leaving for England, and at last my dear 
husband left it with him and me. The people also 
were anxious we should leave, fearing that, if Mr. Jen- 
kins died among them ^ another would not be sent." 

The following letters, from Mr. Jenkinses medical 
attendant, prove more than a mere professional interest 
in his recovery, and on this account, as well as owing 
to their showing the nature of his indisposition, are 
worthy of being preserved — 

" Turk's Island, March IStk, 1827. 

" Dear Sir, 

" After due reflection upon the circumstances 
of your case, I am decidedly of opinion that, whilst you 
reside in an intertropical climate, such a restoration of 
your health as will enable you to discharge, with im- 
punity, your very laborious duties is not to be ex- 
pected. I would advise you to avail yourself of the 
earliest opportunity for removal. The tone of your 
stomach is nearly gone, and there is, in your case, a 
strong disposition to great venous congestions of im- 
portant internal organs, — the brain, lungs, &c. The 
whole host of tonic medicines, and all the adjuvants of 
diet, &c., will avail but little, without the aid of a 
residence in a temperate climate. 

I am, very respectfully, 

" Your friend and servant, 
''John Stafford, M.D." 

" Rev. Mr. Jenkins." 

" Turk's Island, March 20th, 1827. 

" My dear Sir, 

" I urgently enjoin on you an immediate return 
to England, for the purpose of restoring your health. 
I cannot but consider a longer stay than is absolutely 
unavoidable in a West Indian climate as nothing 
short of self-martyrdom. — To perform your ministerial 
duties with your shattered constitution will be totally 
impracticable, and why then should you hesitate as to 
the adoption of the only means whereby you can hope 
to be able to resume them — an immediate return to 



THE RET. JOHN JITNKINS. 



197 



England, and a residence there till your constitution 
has been renovated ? — With regard to your proposition 
of a residence in Nova Scotia, it being the nearest part 
to v/hich you could go, thus much may be said — that, 
notwithstanding its latitude, it is objectionable to an 
invalid for several reasons — the infinite variation of the 
weather by storms being the principal. A trip to 
England, I have no hesitation in saying, y/i\l benefit 
you ; a trip to Nova Scotia would be of doubtful effi- 
cacy, — and your case does not allow^ of your acting on 
doubtful issues, !? A mild, temperate climate, can alone 
with safety be resorted to. 

" I am. Sir, very respectfully. 

" Your friend and servant, 
^'JoHN Stafford, M. D.'' 

" Rev. J, Jenkins." 

" On the 24th of March Mr. Jenkins w^as carried 
from his bed to the vessel, amidst the prayers and 
tears of that dear people," says Mrs. Jenkins, " who 
feared he would not reach homie alive ; but he had not 
been lono- on the water before he beofan to revive a 
little. At eleven o'clock, P. M., w^hen about seventy 
miles from Turk's-Island, we struck on a reef, but a 
mi wave came and carried us into a bay. The 
pun 3s were tried, and it was found that the vessel was 
not much injured ; and, on the 27th, we arrived at 
Nassau, and remained at our kind friend INIrs. Sleigh- 
tam's. Here w^e took the advice of a medical man, 
and he also recommended our return. On the 7th of 
April we went on board the Juno, Captain Russel, and 
on the 13th arrived at Rum-Key for a cargo of salt. 
We anchored early in the morning ; our kind friend 
Mr. Dorsett was on board before we were dressed, 
and he took us to his house. It being Good-Friday, 
Mr. Dorsett had service. Mr. Jenkins w^as taken to 
bed, and, being unable to take any part in the service, 
the singing affected him exceedingly. Our dear friend 
Mrs. D., though she had an infant, was unceasing in 
'her attentions to my beloved partner, and he improved 
during the five days we remained wuth them. On the 
18th we sailed for New- York, a passage of more than 

s 2 



198 



A MEMOIR OF 



1000 miles, and as the vessel was over-laden, and we 
had an exceedingly rough passage, we had not a dry 
deck all the way. We were in a heavy gale a night 
and two days, and had scarcely a hope of getting safe 
to land. At this time Mr. Jenkins was very ill ; but 
when able, and the weather would permit, he held 
service on deck with the captain and men ; for we were 
the only passengers. As we drew near the American 
coast, we witnessed the effects of the storm, by the 
vessels which were wrecked and driven on shore, and 
felt truly thankful that at the time we had plenty of 
sea-room. We left the brig fifty miles from New» 
York, and went in the pilot-boat with the captain ; for 
he was not allowed to land his cargo, or to remain 
more than twenty- four hours. We arrived in the city 
on the 1st of May, and had great difficulty in pro- 
curing lodgings, owing to its being the day on which 
they changed houses, and Mr. Jenkins's very sickly 
appearance, which induced the keepers of the inns 
and boarding-houses to refuse us admittance. The 
preachers had gone to Conference, except the Rev. 
Mr. Field, who sent us to a friend's house, where Mr. 
Jenkins was taken so ill that we feared he could not 
live. In two or three days we removed from the 
boarding-house of Mr. Hyde to the house of Mr. 
Samuel B. Harper, Steward of St. John's Church, and 
the kindness we received from that family, the Rev. 
Mr. Field, Mr. Dando, Mr. Hall, and many others, 
will never be forgotten. The presiding elder kindly 
called on us, and invited Mr. Jenkins to attend their 
Conference; he revived a little, prayed one Sabbath 
morning in St. John's Church, and preached in the 
evening, but this threw him back ; and the doctor there 
also advised his return to his native land; and on the 
16th we left in the ship Manchester, Captain Lee, in 
company with twenty other cabin passengers. Mr. 
Jenkins was unable to preach, but the Rev. Mr. 
M'CoUey, of the established thurch, read sermons. 
A few days before we arrived at Liverpool Mr. Jen- 
kins got much better, and the doctor thought his native 
air was the cause. Although he was so weak, how- 
ever, he kept up family worship in the ladies' cabin ; 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



199 



the clergyman and many of the passengers appeared 
dehghted to attend, and repeatedly expressed their de- 
sires for his restoration, that they might be favoured 
with a sermon from him before they parted. Upon 
the whole we had a very good passage, though, off the 
coast of Ireland, we were in very great danger from a 
violent squall. On the 6th of June we landed, and 
went to the house of our highly esteemed friend the 
Rev. Josiah Hill. Mrs. Hill also was very kind, and 
we spent the day with them, and in the evening went 
to Mr. Daniel Mason's. Mr. M., with his excellent 
wife, made us very comfortable. The preachers and 
friends were very kind, and, having spent some days 
with them, we proceeded to Bristol. By this time 
Mr. Jenkins was much better, and he soon began 
to preach and attend missionary meetings." 

On his arrival in England, Mr. Jenkins received 
the following letter from the Rev. Mr. Morley, di- 
rected " To the care of the Rev. R. Newton, to remain 
till Mr. Jenkins's arrival and, as he has written 
" valued" on the back of it, it appears he properly 
esteemed the sympathy expressed, and the desire 
evinced to meet his wishes and his interests in his future 
appointments : — 

"77, Hatton Garde?!, June 2nd, 1827. 
"My dear Brother, 

" Your letter of May 8th is come to hand. 
We are truly sorry to hear of your series of sufferings, 
first by shipwreck, and now by sickness. Your re- 
quest to visit your friends at Bristol is complied with, 
and we hope your visit to that place will be the means 
of recruiting your health, and of preparing you for 
future labour. As soon as you can, please to send us 
word how your health is, and whether you are suf- 
ficiently recruited to take a circuit, either at home 
or abroad, as the next Conference may appoint, or 
whether you think it will be necessary to be appointed as 
a supernumerary. — We are thankful to hear that your 
heart is still in the work, and that, in the midst of all 
your afflictions, your soul is happy in God. — Please to 



200 



A MEMOIR OF 



remember me affectionately to Mrs. Jenkins : her 
letter was duly received. 

" Praying" that you may be comforted under your 
afflictions, and, if it please God, speedily restored to 
health, 

" I am, my dear brother, for self and colleagues, 
" Yours very affectionately, 

" G. MORLEY." 

Though Mr. Jenkins imprudently exceeded his 
strength in Bristol and its neighbourhood, by preach- 
ing both in the chapels and in the open air, he thought 
himself equal to the labours of a circuit, and refused 
to listen to the advice of those v^ho urged him to 
request a supernumerary appointment for a year, 
in hopes of more effectually restoring his exhausted 
capabilities ; and he w^as appointed to Pembroke, in 
Wales. 

" We left Bristol," says Mrs. Jenkins, ^' August 
24th, for our appointment, which was Pembroke, 
where we were kindly received by that people. Mr. 
J. went through his work for some time very well, till 
called to attend the various missionary meetings ; but 
the extra travelling and excitement produced on such 
occasions generally left him unfit to attend to his cir- 
cuit labours for many weeks. In one of these afflic- 
tions the President had kindly engaged a young man to 
supply for him, but my dear husband, unwilling to re- 
main unemployed, and finding his strength increased, 
Wrote to prevent his coming, although he was on the 
way." 

The design of thus supplying his place was af- 
fectionately announced by the Rev. Mr. James, one 
of the missionary secretaries, in the following extract 
from a letter under date of January 10th, 1828 : — 

" We are exceedingly sorry to hear of your pro- 
tracted indisposition, but hope, by the blessing of God, 
you will ere long be restored to your labours and use- 
fulness in the Lord's vineyard. Remember him, my 
dear brother, who hath said, ' I will never leave you, 
nor forsake you.' 



THE REY. JOHN JENKINS. 



201 



" We have obtained the President's leave to send 
you a young man, intended for the missionary work, 
to supply your places. He will be with you in a 
fortnight's time, or sooner, if he can obtain his dis- 
charge from his present situation. He seems a truly 
pious and devoted man, and I hope his labours will be 
greatly blessed among the people. — My colleagues 
unite in their expression of sympathy and affection 
for you, with, 

" My dear Brother, 
Yours truly, 

John James." 

Mrs. Jenkins remarks, " It was delightful to witness 
the happy, resigned, state of his soul under his suffer- 
ings: he used to observe, ' It is our privilege always to 
triumph in Christ,' and he largely partook of the spirit 
of his divine Master. He went about doing good, and 
studied the temporal as well as the spiritual comfort of 
those around him, and many have called to acknowledge 
their gratitude for his advice, and for the medicines 
he so freely gave them. I may say of him as was said 
of the holy Br am well, 

Benevolence was lie, a soul of love; 

Though placed on earth his mind was still above ; 

On heaven's calm verge he dwelt, breathed its pure air. 

And when death called — a step — and he was there," 

Under these circumstances such a letter as the fol- 
lowing, from the Rev. Mr. Shipman, would doubtless 
be welcome ; — 

"Lynn, Norfolk, March Sth, 1828. 
" My dear Brother, 

" Your kind and very acceptable letter came to 
hand, after going to Lyme in Dorsetshire : you will 
please add No? folk to the address of your next. I 
began to think that surely you had forgotten ' Auld 
lang syne,' as I was so long before I heard from you ; 
your epistle, however, entirely chased away these un- 
pleasant thoughts, and excited a degree of pleasure in 
the mind of myself and Mrs. S. which I am unable to 
explain. I was the more troubled because I have 



A MEMOIR OF 



written three or four times to Mr. Young, who has 
not answered me at all, and what is the cause I do not 
know. Have you heard from him lately ? I began to 
think that in some mysterious, and to me impenetrable 
manner, I had thought, or said, or done, something 
which had offended all my dear brethren, to whom my 
soul was knitted, as the soul of Jonathan to David, but 
am happy in perceiving myself, in one case at least, 
disappointed. Well, so much by way of preface. 

" I was very sorry to learn from yours that you had 
suffered so much, but indulge the pleasing hope that, 
if I should go to Conference, I shall once more shake 
a friend by the hand for whom I have always had 
a much more than ordinary esteem. Looking back 
to the days when we saw each other's faces as the faces of 
angels — Yv^hen we felt that mutual glow of friendship 
which could not find utterance in words or expression, in 
looks or gestures, or violent squeezing of each other's 
fing'ers — I seem carried back to scenes of Christian 
fellowship and joy which I am never again to witness 
as an inhabitant of this world. The only prospect of 
such delightful feasts is when I have crossed the flood 
of death, and meet them on the banks of deliverance. 
And, after all, that will exceed all that I then enjoyed, 
because it was not all pleasure, — there were many trying 
circumstances. Some brethren had what was not al- 
ways agreeable, — and there was the persecuting spirit 
of the wicked,— -the threatened insurrection of the poor 
slaves, ---the unhealthiness of the climate, &c. ; these 
things often threw bitter ingredients into that cup of 
pleasure put into my hands by those other circumstances. 
As I now am, I seem to have less delight and less pain ; 
it is a mixed cup still, but the bitters and sweets are 
not so strong. If I am faithful, I hope, after a while, 
to possess joys more sweet than those of Jamaica, when 
in company with my brethren, without the infusion of 
a single chip of Quashie, or any other bitter ingre- 
dient ; till then I pray the Lord to make me willing 
to have as much bitU i' infused into the cup of life as He 
in his wisdom may app(^.At, because this is for my 
health. What I most need, and I trust desire and seek, 
is more religion, and then, even here, my joys will be 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



203 



greater, and my sorrows less. — But how inconsiderate 
I am : I write as if I were intending a volume like the 
Pilgrim's Progress and not a small sheet, which I find 
will soon be filled, and you have no news. 

" I am now at one of my country places, and am 
writing with a short pen, hardly two inches long, and 
surrounded by the family, which v/ill plead both for the 
inaccuracies of diction and the coarseness of the exe- 
cution ; but, having a little leisure, I thought you 
w^ould excuse these things, if you could only make out 
my meaning. — I am in the immediate neighbourhood 
of a large river, up which the tide flows, and which is 
prevented from overflowing the country by high em- 
bankments : the tide, however, was so increased by the 
winds this morning that, in one place, it came over the 
bank, about 200 yards from where I am writing ; the 
house at which I stopped yesterday is two stories high, 
and stands immediately under the bank, which is about 
on a level with the top of the chamber windows. Should 
the bank burst in such a place, you see where we 
should be. The country to the westward is fenny 
and very much below high w^ater mark. 

" We are going- on better in our circuit than when 
I wrote you last. We have not only peace within our 
borders, but some degree of prosperity : our congrega- 
tions are good comparatively novr, both in town and 
country, and I hope we shall have some additions to the 
society. On the 20th of April Mr. M'XicolL is to 
preach our chapel anniversary, and we think that Mrs. 
West will perhaps come with him to see us. Mrs. S. 
was quite overcome when we received the Magazine 
for this month, and saw the account of Grimsdale's 
imprisonment and death ; and told me that, if I felt 
as much about Jamaica as she did, I should go back 
again. I shall see her before I send this oft, and I am 
sure she will unite with me in a thousand ' how does' 
to Mrs. J. and yourself. Perhaps when I get home I 
may add a postscript : till then adieu. 

John Shipman." 

My dear Mr. Jenkins, 

I am very much obliged by the very affectionate 



204 



A MEMOIR OF 



manner in which you enquire after me : I do not recol- 
lect much about Jamaica, but I have a perfect remem- 
brance of you. Please present my affectionate regards 
to Mrs. Jenkins, and believe me to be 

" Yours respectfully, 

"Samuel A. Shipman." 

Mr. Jenkins was fond of poetry, and occasionally 
beguiled a sleepless night, gave utterance to his feel- 
ings, or excited his devotional sensibilities, by original 
poetic effusions. Those whiph he left behind are of 
somewhat unequal merit ; and the following have un- 
dergone a little revision,* to ^vhich he would probably 
have been the first to consent had he been consulted. 
At the bottom of the first Mrs. J. has written Mr. J. 
was very ill, and unable to sleep, when he made the 
above and as they were all composed in June, 1828, 
they appear to have been the spontaneous efforts of an 
active mind now rendered unable to pursue its favourite 
avocations by bodily affliction. 

WASTING AT MIDNIGHT OIL." 

Thy brow is feverish, 
And thou seem'st saddened down with care : 

Sleep hath thine eyelids fled, 
And thou art thoughtful and alone. 

O tell me, weary one. 
What woe oppresses thy lone mind? 

For I will feel for thee, 
And weep, couldst thou hut he relieved. 

Go to thy pillow soft — 
Dream not of one whose mournful sighings are 

Heavier than e'en his tale. 
I love thy mournful sympathy. 

But dare not think of it. 
My friendly lamp is nearly spent — 

'Tis like my ebbing life. 
Yet hope, thank Heaven, is not for ever fled ; 

She points to future good, 
And o'er my present darkness throws 

A welcome dawn, which gives 
Earnest of better prospects yet to come." 

Pembroke, June iSth, 1828." 
* By the Bey. J. W. Thomas, author of Lyra Briiannica.'' 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



205 



-TO FRENZY." 

" Frenzy ! thy face is haggard, and thy vest 
Flies loosely, and thy hands are white ; 
Thy brow is covered o^er with feverish dews : 
Thy eyes roll wildly, and thy frame is chilled 
And agitated, and thy hair is torn. 
And strewed around ! Frenzy ! I pity thee ; 
For fell despair hath marked thee as her victim, 
And waved her wings, and cast her shadow o'er thee. 
Thy soul is blighted, and, within thy breast, 
Grief, like a vulture, gnaws incessantly. 
Frenzy I thy heart, though changed, is not all marble ; 
For I can read in that vague wandering glance — 
That lock of thine — a sensibility. 
The remnant of affections wann and pure, 
* The farewell beam of feelings passed away.' 
And had thy sun not set, thy fires been quenched, 
Thy heart had throbbed, thine eyes had sparkled still. 
Thou hast known friendship — though thy tearless eye 
Now looks upon thy dearest as on strangers. 
And thou, unmoved, couldst view thy offspring slain. 
I pity thee, thou sad, soul-stricken mourner! 
I hear the bitter sighs that heave thy bosom ; 
I see thee shake thy head, and fold thy vest, 
And hurry to and fro despondingly. 
And 1 will grieve for thee, and share thv woes, 
And give thee sigh for sigh, and groan for groan. 
Till mv sad heart shall weep itself away. 
Now sit thee down, and listen to the winds ; 
Their bowlings will be music in thy ears ; 
Thv lute is wild, and 1 would stay with thee, 

And learn its tones 

Bat see ! his eyes distended, 
Glare most horribly, — and a film covers them ! 
Ah me ! his blood whirls madly, and he raves ; — 
He sinks j — ^he falls; — his senses are o'erpower'd. 
INIay angels chase the demon from his hold. 
And balmy slumber give the sufferer rest !" 

Sageston, June, 1828.'' 

The somewhat irregular style adopted in the above 
pieces adds much to their poetic effect, they are what 
the lovers of epithet would call " spirit-stirring^^ pro- 
ductions ; and they will lose none of their effect by con- 
trast with the following hymn, written but a few days 
previously, and descriptive of Sabbatical rest : — 

T 



206 



A MEMOIR OF 



''THE SABBATH." 

1. '' Holy Sabbath, day of rest, 
Full of comfort to the blest. 
Swiftly pass thy hours away, 
Sacred, peaceful, blessed day ! 

2. God of all-abundant love ! 
Hymn'd by Cherubim above ; 
Men have oft extolled thy fame, 
We presume to lisp thy name. 

3. Thousand praises thou hast heard ; 
Thousand prayers to thee preferred j 
Souls unite this day, and share 

In the work of praise and prayer. 

4. I would praise, and love, and pray, 
I could sing my life away ; 

This is heaven, but not so sweet 
As to worship near thy seat. 

Do I could weep, but, cease my tears, — 
God is good — away my fears \ — 
Lord, the contrite heart is thine, 
Take this humbled heart of mine!" 

Pembroke, Lord's-day, June l5th, 1828/' 

The following account of Mr. Jenkins's last ap- 
pointment, sickness, and death, is from the pen of Mrs. 
Jenkins, and it is all that needs to be said, either as^ 
history or eulogy, on her departed husband : — 

" His labours were blest in the Pembroke circuit, 
although he could not always attend his appointments : 
just before we left he had not been able to preach for 
several weeks. The quarterly meeting had pressed 
him to take the superintendence of the circuit, but it 
was too laborious. I have just met with a copy of a 
letter written, I think, to Mr. Buckley, at the Con- 
ference, 1828:— 

" ' Dear Sir, 

'"I feel much affected that j^ur mind should 
have been so much occupied and concerned about me 
and my circumstances. Your letter of the 7tK^ came to 
hand this morni^ig, .to which I have only to state, 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



207 



" ' Mr. Bersey is so engaged that he will not be 
able to write until to-morrow, I feel I cannot, without 
thinking I incur the charge of obstinacy, resist your 
opinion, and the opinion of the brethren, respecting an 
appointment for the next year. 

' If you, after what I stated in my last, deem it 
right I should not take a circuit, I will most willingly 
yield to your decision, and you may put me down for 
Bristol. Since your former letter, we have been much 
in prayer with the great Head of the Church for di- 
rection and I think I feel that/br me to live is Christ : 
let him do with me as seemeth good in his sight, where 
he pleases, and in what way he pleases, to fix my sta- 
tion. I also feel that for me to die is gain. Blessed 
be God ! my heart is more than ever in His work ; 
but, if He think fit to lay me aside, I am willing ; let 
Him do as seemeth good in His sight ; and I take the 
voice of His servants as His voice.' 

I think the next letter informed us of our ap- 
pointment for Scilly. We were perfectly satisfied ; 
we hired a vessel, and sailed from Milford, on Sabbath 
evening, six o'clock, August 31st, and landed at St. 
Mary's, Scilly, Tuesday morning, six o'clock, Septem= 
ber 2nd. The voyage proved very beneficial to my 
dear husband, so that he was able to go through his 
work the first Sabbath. In about a fortnight he had 
to cross the water again, to attend the district meeting* 
in Cornwall; during his absence (ten days) he preached 
in Penzance, and some other places. I received the 
folio wins* communication from him : — 

o 

" ' Penzance, Sept, Wth, 1828. 
' We arrived at this place about half-past eight 
last evening, so that our voyage was unusually long, 
and, on account of the heat by day and the heavy 
dews at night, was not very comfortable. Our stock 
of provision also did not hold out, so that we had 
nothing from about twelve o'clock till we reached 
Penzance. We left the vessel becalmed about four 
miles from the town, and walked in ; but, to our great 
mortification, we had not landed more than a quarter 
of an hour before a breeze sprang up, and she was in 



208 



A MEMOIR OF 



harbour before us. I lodged last night at an inn, as it 
was late : I was hungry and weary, and did not know 
where to find Mr. Scurrah. This morning I called 
upon him, and was very kindly received ; I have been 
with him ever since. I have been nearly over the 
town, and am greatly pleased with the beautiful 
scenery of the surrounding country, covered with ver- 
dure, and pretty thickly sprinkled with lovely villas. 
The chapel is a very good one, about the size and form 
of Pitt Street chapel, Lis^erpool. The organ is very 
handsome, and, after I have heard its tones, I can tell 
you whether I think it a good one. The lower part 
of the town I think far from neat or clean, but there 
are some good houses in it. 

" ' Mr. Webb knows you; he and Mr. Taylor seem 
agreeable men. I have promised Mrs. Scurrah, who 
is an agreeable and kind woman, to bring you with 
me the next visit I pay. I am pretty well, and am 
looking forward to next Friday with anxiety. The 
Lord be with thee my dearest. 

' I am, 

' My dearest, 
" ' Yours, 

' John Jenkins.' 

We hoped that the health of my dear partner 
would have been perfectly restored. In a letter to a 
friend, January, 1829, he observed, ' I feel grateful in 
being able to add that this place seems to agree with 
me much better than I hoped before my arrival, so 
that, with little intermission, I have been able to attend 
to my work. For this I am thankful to the Lord, who, 
I believe, directed the appointment.' 

*'He had the affections of the people. He was ex- 
ceedingly zealous in promoting the cause of missions 
and Sabbath schools ; his whole soul was engaged in 
the glorious cause of the Redeemer. When on a visit 
at my parents' I received the following letter : — 

" ' St. Mary's, Scilly, March Sd, 1829. 
' My dearest love, 

« I looked for a letter by the last packet, al- 



THE RET. JOHN JENKINS. 



209 



though I did not fully expect one, as mine could not 
have reached you in time for answer. 

" ' I have no doubt but you are trying to spend 
your time to the very best advantage : and my very 
fervent and earnest prayer is that the blessing of our 
common Father and God mav every moment rest 
upon you, and our dear parents, and other relatives. 

" ' I told you in my last that, at the time of writing, 
I was indisposed. My indisposition continued to in- 
crease for some days upon me : I however at once had 
rec^rse to medicine, and am now very much better, 
so ^at I intend to-day to go out a little. You need 
not fael the least uneasy about me, as Ann does all 
she can, and the friends are very attentive — IMiss 
Grace and Mrs. Hooper. I need not tell you they are 
not my Sarah, and that I look forward with some 
anxiety to the time of your return — this I am assured 
is mutual. 

" ' We were very near m.eeting with a serious acci- 
dent a few nights ago, that could hardly have been 
foreseen : after falling asleep, about two o'clock I 
awoke almost suffocated, with my room full of smoke ; 
the door and window were closed, and the candle 
burning on the drawers. I leaped out of bed, weak as 
I was, and ran into x\nn's room, and called her : I ran 
down stairs, but all was safe : I returned to m}: own 
room again, and perceived that the lower drawer was 
open about an inch, and something was burning ; I 
laid hold of it, but it was nearlv extinguished, so that 
a gracious Providence himself interposed. A spark 
must have shot from the candle, and have fallen into 
the drawer : and yet the candle was full twelve inches 
from the edge. AVe will bless the Lord for his mercies. 
Mrs. Banfield has been dangerously ill. Betsy Phillips 
is very low. Betsy Duff, I think, will be soon in 
heaven. Mrs. Tregarthen is recovering. Of course I 
have not been able to see them, but hope to do so to- 
morrow. 

And now% my dearest, what shall I say more, but 
exhort you to stay your mind on the Lord : faithfully 
serve him, ardently love him, implicitly believe him. 
He can save. He will save. ]\Iy kindest love to our 

T 2 



210 



A MEMOIR OF 



dear parents at Cheddar and Bristol ; also to our dear 
sisters, and brothers, and children. I wish I were with 
you ; how greatly would it rejoice me to see them all ! 
When you write in reply to this, inform me w^hen you 
fully purpose to return, that I may send to Penzance 
for them to be apprised of it. I neglected to state 
above that only the covering of the drawer and one of 
my shirts have been burnt. 

" ' If the people knew of my writing you, I should 
have loves enough ; but Ann does not know what to 
say, leaving it to me to tell you whether she has been 
good or not. I sent for her little sister, who is now 
with us. Farewell my love. 

" ' I am, my dearest Love, 

' Thy affectionate Husband.' 

" As Mr. Jenkins kept no journal whilst at Scilly, 
I have thought giving an extract or two from some of 
his letters will give an idea of the state of his mind. 

" Extract of a letter to Rev, Mr, S. of Penzance, 
" ' Scilly, May llth, 1829. 

" ' Dear Brother, 

' I will do what I can on the 23d instant, 
but I am so doubtful, that I feel already much de- 
pressed lest what I shall say be not accepted. I often 
think this sort of questioning and unbelief arises from 
pride of heart. Why should I feel so, if my only desire 
is to lead sinners to the Lamb of God ? Mrs. Jenkins 
and I have prayed for you, your dear wife, and children, 
that your present afflictions may indeed be fully sancti- 
fied, and that in heaven you may reap the eternal 
weight of glory that these afflictions are working out. 

" ' Need I say to you. Cast all your care upon the 
Lord, for he careth for you ? You have proved his 
word to be faithful, and you must, you will, trust in 
him to the end. 

" ' We are exceedingly grateful to hear of the com- 
posed and happy state of Mrs. Scurrah's mind, and 
have no doubt but through the whole length, rugged- 
ness, and darkness of the way she has to pass, she will 
feel and rejoice, Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



211 



' Please make our most affectionate love to Mrs. 
Scurrah, and assure her of the hope and joy we have 
of meeting her, her husband, her children, before the 
throne of God, to praise him for ever. 

" ' I have written this hasty scrawl in much pain, 
being confined by a bruised knee, that has nearly kept 
me in bed the whole of several days. You may see 
me yet leaning upon my staff, but I hope you will not. 

" ' I enclose a note to my friend Harry, telling him 
that I shall make his house mine for the time I shall be 
with you. — The Lord bless you. 

' I am, my dear Brother, 

" ^ Yours affectionately, 

' John Jenkins.* 

Sabbath, 16th May, he was unable to preach, 
being ill in bed. Tuesday, 18th, we sailed to Fal- 
mouth: landed on Wednesday morning. Mr. J. was 
so much recovered that he walked to the chapel in the 
evening, and, being disappointed of a preacher, they 
pressed him to preach ; he did, to our great astonish- 
ment. 21st, we went to Penzance, and found that our 
dear sister Scurrah's spirit had left its clay tenement 
on the preceding Wednesday. On the 22nd her dear 
child Elizabeth expired. These events affected my 
dear husband ; he felt more than he could well bear. 
Sunday, 23d, he preached in Penzance for the benefit 
of the Dispensary in that town ; he preached twice, 
and held a love-feast in the afternoon, in which he ex- 
pressed a desire to be again engaged in the missionary 
work. The next morning we, with many hundreds, 
followed the remains of our dear sisters to the grave. 
Six o'clock, P. M., Mr. Jenkins preached at Newlyn, 
from Rev. vii. 14, ' These are they which came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes,' &c. 
25th, we returned to Falmouth, Rev. A. B. Seckerson, 
Webb, Jackson, and Callaway, accompanied us ; he 
attended all the services during the district, and greatly 
enjoyed the company of the brethren. 28th, .we left 
Falmouth, and got to Penzance just in time to go on 
board the packet ; got home the next day. He con- 
tinued to go through his work until Thursday, June 



212 



A MEMOIR OF 



24th, when he preached, for the last time, from the 
apostle's exhortation to the Colossians, ' Let the word 
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,' &c. ; and, 
although there was a great noise outside the chapel, in 
consequence of an illumination in the town, our friends, 
on leaving the chapel, could not help remarking the 
very great composure he manifested throughout the 
whole service, and observed, ' It was indeed a time of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord.' We little 
thought that was to be the last time we were thus to be 
favoured. We spent the evening at the Circuit-steward, 
Mr. Banfield's, with his excellent family, and Mrs. 
B.'s worthy father and mother, Mr. John Mumford, 
the other steward and leader at Holy- Vale. Before 
we parted, Mr. Jenkins prayed (this was his invariable 
rule), and the presence of God was so powerfully re- 
vealed that I think most of us felt as if we had been 
' alone with Jesus.' He had been poorly before, but 
the next day was taken much worse. Our dear friends 
at Scilly evinced the greatest attention, concern, 
and affection ; this feeling was not confined to the 
members of our Society, but to the inhabitants gene- 
rally, especially the most respectable part of them ; 
and many fervent prayers were presented to God for 
them by him. July 10th, our dear brethren arrived 
from Cornwall to attend our Missionary Meeting, Rev. 
T. Webb, W. Lawrey, T. W. Smith, George Jack- 
son, and Mr. Harry. It was very affecting to see 
them approach his bed, one after the other ; and they 
will not forget the joy that filled his heart, and beamed 
in his countenance, as he embraced them, and blessed 
the Lord for their safe passage, and prayed that 
much good might result from their visit to the islands. 
Sunday, Smith, Jackson, and Lawrey, preached in St. 
Mary's ; Mr. Webb visited Tresco. Monday, the 12th, 
we had a most interesting Missionary Meeting, both 
preachers and people were highly delighted ; and the 
affliction of dear Mr. Jenkins was the only drawback 
to our mutual joy and delight. 

" At the commencement of his illness he gave me 
directions for his funeral, should he die in Scilly, re- 
questing the Sunday-school children and teachers might 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



213 



walk before the corpse, &c. &c. He suffered more 
than can be described ; sometimes not being able to 
breathe until nearly suffocated : when he could get a 
breath, he would praise God, and say, ' That was 
worth a world,' For nine or ten days his stomach was 
unable to retain any thing. He would put his hand to 
his chest, observing, ' The seat of the complaint is 
here, and that is not touched.' Though the doctor 
was very attentive, and did all he could, it baffled his 
skill. Mr. J. thanked him, saying, ' Doctor, I enter- 
tain the highest opinion of your attentions, and shall 
ever cherish a grateful remembrance of them.' One 
night he had a severe conflict with the enemy, who 
wanted him to doubt the safety of his state, and the 
faithfulness of God. 'But,' said he, 'I looked to 
Jesus, and he vanished.' This was, I think, about 
three weeks before his death. July 22nd, Thursday 
morning, half-past eight o'clock, he said, ' My dear, I 
feel I have peace, and no doubt of my acceptance in 
the Beloved ; but I want more joy in the Holy Ghost.' 
He then prayed aloud for about twenty minutes : in- 
stantly his soul was filled so unutterably full of the love 
of God that he exclaimed, ' Glory be to God ! glory be 
to God !' till nearly exhausted. He observed, ' I as 
sensibly felt the change the second time, Be clean ! 
as I did when I was justified.* He longed for all the 
world to feel and enjoy the same blessing. He had 
often received benefit from a sea voyage, and to day, 
about eleven, A. M., Mr. Banfield and I got the doc- 
tor's permission to take him on the water. He soon 
began to revive, took food, and enjoyed the sail till 
three, P. M. After we got home, the doctor came, 
and, to his great astonishment, found him sitting in the 
parlour, much stronger than before we left. We went 
again on Friday and Saturday. 24th, soon afler we got 
home, brother Jackson landed from Penzance to sup- 
ply for Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jackson thought my dear 
husband's legs were swollen, but he thought lightly of 
it ; and we hoped that my dear partner would soon be 
raised up again ; but the swelling increased in the legs 
and bowels. 25th, Sabbath, Mr. Jackson preached; 
and, whilst he was engaged in the first prayer, Mr. 



214 



A MEMOIR OF 



Jenkins was telling me how very happy he was, that 
his soul was full of love, that he knew not how to 
praise the Lord enough. I said, ^ I have no doubt but 
Mr. Jackson and the congregation are praying for you 
now,' and so they were ; and, while they called, the 
Lord blessed his suffering servant with such a glorious 
manifestation of his divine presence as led him often to 
exclaim, ' My cup runneth over.' One day, he said, 
' I feel so sweetly resigned to the will of my heavenly 
Father, he fills me so full of himself, that I am nothing 
but love ! — all love ! — and was never in such a state 
before.' One day, two ladies called to see him ; one 
of them he had repeatedly visited when she was ap- 
parently near death, and was restored, as many be- 
lieved, in answer to his earnest prayers. She then 
promised to live to God. He now reminded her of her 
resolutions, begging her to "give her heart to God 
without delay ; and asked, ' What would my condition 
be now, were I not in possession of the salvation of 
God?' He then asked, ' Shall we four meet in heaven?' 
Some months before his illness, he was requested to 
visit a young gentleman who had often been impressed 
under his ministry. He found him very ill, and under 
conviction for sin. Mr. J. gladly pointed him to the 
Lamb of God, and he soon obtained peace. One 
night Mr. Jenkins was much distressed. I asked, 
' What is the matter, my dear?' He replied, ' C. L. is 
so ^uch on my mind I cannot rest.' He spent the 
night in earnest prayer for him. In the morning we 
called, and found that his mind had been greatly dis- 
tressed. His mother said, she believed he had not 
ceased praying all night, and often wished Mr. Jenkins 
had been with him. We prayed, and left him more 
comfortable. He was restored. 

" An extract of a note from another young gentle- 
man, who attended his ministry, will show that he was 
always ready to impart comfort to all. The note is 
dated St. Mary's, Sept. 22nd, 1829. ' Allow me to 
thank you (as I feel I never can thank you sufficiently) 
for your kindness in rising from your bed (and at my 
request) to visit me during the night of my severe ill- 
ness, a grateful sense of which I hope long to retain.' 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



215 



" I must believe that the seed sown in the Scilly 
Islands by Mr. Jenkins, and followed by his prayers, 
and watered with his tears, will, with the blesjjing- of 
the Divine Being, produce an abundant harvest. 
2nd August, I wrote to the Conference, to Rev. F. 
Truscott, to have John Jenkins attached to the Bristol 
North Circuit as supernumerary. He observed to me 
afterwards, ' I believe, my dear, there is a nearer way 
to heaven for me than Bristol.' He said, with great 
earnestness, ' My dear, is Jesus precious ?' I replied, 
' Yes, love.' He said, ' Bless the Lord !' When 
suffering inexpressible pain, he Vv^ould say, ' It is all 
needful, though it is humbling that it should be need- 
ful. The Lord has an infinite reason for all he does.' 
8th, Sabbath morning, between twelve and one o'clock, 
he was suddenly seized, so that the nurse and I could 
hardly hold him. The servant called up the doctor , 
who came in a few minutes, and we all thought my 
beloved husband was just expiring. It was then, for 
the first time, that I had abandoned hope, as I had 
so often seen him raised as from the grates of death. 
None can tell the agonizing feelings of my soul at that 
awful moment, when he would not allow me to pray 
for his recovery. In a little time he revived, and ex- 
horted for half an hour, as though addressing^the con- 
gregation for the last time ; then gave out, 

* Praise God, from whom all blessings fiow,' «Stc. 

The great solemnity of m.anner and voice, the sublimity 
of language, the depth of thought, and the powerful 
and impressive way in which he entreated all to strive 
for the possession of holiness, without which we shall 
be rejected, was extremely affecting. When he had 
nearly closed, |he said, ' This is Bible ! — this is 
Bible ! — let the infidel confute it if he can.' He then 
repeated, 

' O for a thousand tongues to sing/ &c»; 

then prayed for a considerable time. From that 
period he looked more like an inhabitant of heaven 
than earth. He would often enquire the cause of my 
looking sorrowful ; and, with a heavenly smile, said, 



216 



A MEMOIR OF 



* I love you dearly,' and expressed his thankfulness to 
God for our union. I said, ' Shall I meet you in heaven V 
He answ^ered, ' That is not for me to say, — but, as it 
regards myself, there is no doubt, no fear, no, nothing 
like it — there is the same mercy, the same Saviour, the 
same heaven, all free for you as for me ; trust in the 
Lord, then my soul for yours.' About seven o'clock, he 
said, * My dear, I have had a most delightful dream 
about Father ; I thought v^^e were conversing, and the 
subject w^as the love of God. Father repeated. Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy might, &c. ; then 
enquired, John, will you engage to do it ? I an- 
swered, I will, Father ; and we both engaged to love 
the Lord with all our hearts. Father said. This is 
the standard around which we will rally.' 

" He spoke most affectionately of our parents, bro- 
thers, and sisters, and with pain anticipated their feel- 
ings when they should hear of his removal. I requested 
him to pray for me ; he commenced praying for him- 
self, then for me, then for our parents, and all our other 
relatives. I said, ' Do you think the Lord will spare 
you V He answered, * If he has any thing for me to 
do, he will.' I said, ' Do you think it wrong for me to 
pray for your recovery V He said, ' No.' I said, ' Will 
you pray for it V He returned, ' If you wish it, I 
will,' — with a most interesting smile, as if it had been 
of no importance whether he recovered or not. So 
completely was his will lost in the will of God, that he 
had no choice but to say, * Thy will be done.^ He saw me 
weeping, he turned his head from me, and said, ' Nurse, 
Mrs. Jenkins is grieving, but she ought not to do so ; 
she ought to put her trust in the Lord, and her bread 
shall be criven, and her water shall be sure.' When 
he had commended me to the care of our gracious God, 
I reminded him of the day of our union, when, on our 
return from the altar, as soon as we entered the house, 
he requested my sister and I to go up stairs ; we fell 
on our knees, and he earnestly entreated God's blessing 
on our union, and presented this petition, *Head of the 
Church, be head to my wife.' 

" Our dear friends often called, also the Baptist and 



^HE KEY. JOHN JENKINS. 



217 



Bryanite preachers, and one of the clmrch ministers. 
He always gave the right hand of fellowship to all who 
loved our Lord Jesus, and whose aim was the glQry of 
God, in the conversion of sinners. He wished me not 
to allow persons to leave w^ithout seeing him. And 
they will not soon forget the many blessed seasons they 
have enjoyed while around his bed, listening to the 
gracious words that dropped from his mouth. I said, 
' O that I were fully prepared to go with you !' He 
smiling said, ^ Make haste, and get ready : cannot 
you slip away from earth V In the afternoon I ex- 
pressed my gratitude to God for lengthening out his 
life to the present, as he had so often been near death, 
and to him, for his unparalleled affection and attach- 
ment, and his unceasing concern for my comfort and 
happiness, which he had always promoted, and that he 
had more than answered my highest expectation in 
every respect. I told him, if I had been the means of 
adding to his comfort in any degree, it would be a suf- 
ficient recompence. He said, ' I am glad to hear you 
say so, my dear,' and assured me the feeling was mu- 
tual. Soon after Mr. Taylor called (the person who 
preached for him that day), and prayed with him ;and 
although his mind had been wandering just before, 
during prayer it was quite fixed. Misses E. and N. 
Mumford called : on hearing the bell go six, he re- 
minded them it was time to go to chapel. He wanted 
to be dressed, telling me he had prepared a serm^on on 
purpose, and must go. I told him he w^as unable, and 
it w^as then too late. IMr. B. came up : he said, ' Doc- 
tor, I was preparing to go to preach, but the time de- 
ceived me.' We could hear the singing, and he knew 
all the tunes. After service, two of the leaders, Mr. 
Strick and Mr. W. Mumford, came to remain for the 
night : they, with the doctor, nurse, and myself, sat up ; 
and that night will never be forgotten by us. ^V^hen 
the nurse gave him any thing to take, he, with his usual 
kindness, would beg our friends to take something : he 
then looked at me, and said ' My love, take something. 
Nurse, do give Mrs. Jenkins something to take, for I 
am sure she needs it.' About midnight he wanted to 
sing, and gave out, 

u 



218 



A MEMOIR r/F 



* O God ! our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come. 
Our shelter from the stormy hlast, 
And our eternal home;' 

but was unable to sing. He said, ' My love, I have 
spent a most delightful Sabbath.' He then prayed for 
our most gracious king, that when he may be called 
to put off his earthly crown he may receive a crown of 
glory, that shall never fade away) and for the estab- 
lishment of the religion of the Bible in the world, and 
for all that he had ever had the charge of, that every 
individual might meet him at the right hand of God ; 
then, 

* That all may hear the quickening sound. 
Since I, ev'n I, have mercy found.' 

He added, ' We praise thee, O God ! we acknowledge 
thee to be the Lord,' &c. ; saying, ' Lord, make me 
useful to this people.' He appeared as if worshipping 
before the throne ; and, every time he prayed, he con- 
cluded with the Lord's prayer, " The grace of our 
Lord," &c., and may the peace of God, which passeth 
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the 
knowledge and love of God, and of his son Jesus Christ 
our Lord, Amen, and Amen." The devotional manner, 
accompanied with so much sacred awe, it is impossible 
for any to conceive who did not witness the heavenly 
scene. About half an hour before he expired, I said, 
^ My love, do you know me ?' He said, ' Who, James ?' 
meaning his brother, I thought. — I said, ' No.' He 
said affectionately, ' Kiss me.' I said, ' Yes, my dear.' 
He then appeared to sleep. Our friends had just gone 
down, and only Mrs. Thompson (the nurse) and my- 
self were in the room, when, without a struggle or 

froan, his happy spirit escaped to be for ever with the 
lOrd, about 5 o'clock on Monday morning, August 9th, 
1830, aged 32. 

— In his duty prompt at every call, 

He watched and wept, he prayed and felt, for all j 

And, as a bird each fond endearment tries. 

To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies. 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay. 

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 



THE REV. JOHN JENKINS. 



219 



The writer of this memoir, at the time of Mr. Jen- 
kins's death, was at Penzance in Cornwall, in the ca- 
pacity of a supernumerary, and, on the death of Mr. 
Jenkins, he was requested to go and preach on the 
occasion. He did so, and chose as his text, Rev. xiv. 
13, believing it to be applicable to Mr. Jenkins. On 
the same day, August 15th, his remains were interred 
in the church-yard of St. Mary's, Scilly, accompanied, 
it was said by an old and respectable inhabitant, by a 
greater number of persons than ever attended any other 
corpse to the tomb in those islands. 

The following character of Mr. Jenkins was pub- 
lished in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine : — 

Died, August 9th, at Scilly, the Rev. J. Jenkins, 
aged 32 years. In 1827 his emaciated constitution 
obliged him to return from the West Indies ; and hopes 
were entertained, both by himself and his friends, that 
his health, which had been greatly impaired in an un- 
genial climate, would be renovated in his native country. 
He continued to preach, with few interruptions, but often 
with great difficulty, until last June ; when his extreme 
debility compelled him to resign that work in which 
his whole soul was engaged ; but not without a hope 
of resuming his labours after a little rest. His talents 
as a preacher were highly respectable, and his placid 
temper, amiable disposition, and uniform conduct, en- 
deared him to the people among whom he laboured. 
The affliction which brought him to the grrave was 
most distressing : but patience had its perfect work, and 
he suffered according to the will of God. For some 
time previous to his death he experienced that ' perfect 
love' which ' casteth out fear,' witnessed a good con- 
fession, and rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. 

" During the aberration of his mind, occasioned by 
the disease under which he laboured, he was generally 
engaged in praying and preaching ; and even in those 
seasons of mental debility he lamented that his strength 
would not enable him to do more. 

When recollected, as was generally the case, his 
mind was quite tranquil, his peace flowed like a river; 
death to him had no terrors ; the religion which he had 
recommended to others supported him under his se- 



220 



A MEMOIR OF 



vere affliction, and enabled him to triumph over the 
last enemy. 

'^R. S." 

The following* inscription, on a plain stone, is placed 
at the head of Mr. Jenkins's grave, which will be long 
visited with feelings of melancholy interest, by a truly 
pious, intelligent, and affectionate people: — 



IN 

MEMORY 

OF 

THE REV. JOHN JENKINS, 

SOME TIME 

A WESLEYAN MISSIONARY 

IT«ii THE 
WEST INDIES; 

LATE 

THE WESLEYAN MINISTER 

IN THIS ISLAND, 
iie departed this Life 
August 9th, 
1830, 
Aged 32 Years. 



London:— J. Stephens, Printer, 4, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 



Lately Published, hy the same Author, 
12mo., half-bound in cloth, price 2s., 
A SERIES OP LETTERS 

ON THE 

SUBJECTS AND MODE OF 

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

From the Rev. Mr. CAPERS, Representative from the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America to the 
British Conference oilS2Q ; at whose request the work was written. 

"Along with these remembrances, most affectionately cherished, of the few 
short months that you were with us in Charleston, I take occasion to express the 
pleasure it gives me to see your work on Baptism published in this country. 
Permit me to say that I consider it every way worthy of you. The authorities 
are well selected ; and you have used them with a sound discretion. The whole 
execution of the work displays judgment and ability ; and, I doubt not, will 
afford general satisfaction to those who may be seeking information on the sub- 
ject of Baptism, and who would not choose to seai'ch through many volumes to 
obtain it. The pith of the argument is here given, within a reasonable compass, 
with perspicuity, and, as I consider, with effect. You have my best wishes for 
its extensive circulation." 

From the WORLD of Oct. 8th, 1828. 
"In the work before us, the author has, we believe, placed the baptismal con- 
troversy on a new footing, and hence it merits the attention of both of the parties 
concerned. Dr. Gill, in his answer to Dickinson, has said, "Let it be proved 
that infants are, or ought to be, members of Gospel Chui-ches, and we are ready 
to admit them," that is, to baptism. Now this is what Mr. Jackson has here im- 
dertaken to prove. 

"We are happy to have it in our power to say that we have not observed 
any tincture of the odium theologicum throughout the work." 

From the WESLEYAN METHODIST MAGAZINE for Oct. 
1828, p. 690. 

** These letters embrace the principal topics of dispute between the Baptists 
and orthodox Christians of other denominations, are written in a Christian spirit, 
display an intimate knowledge of the subject, and are well adapted to answer 
the end of then- publication, and be veiy useful— in neighbourhoods where at- 
tempts are made, not to convert men from sin to holiness, but to perplex and 
disunite Christian brethren on the subject of baptism." 

From the IMPERIAL MAGAZINE for Oct. 1828, coL 955. 

"A Series of Letters on the Subjects and Mode of Christian Baptism, &c., 
by George Jackson, the reader will find worthy of his attention. Within the 
narrow compass of 120 pages, the author has contrived to compress history, 
argument, and scriptui'e, which in their combined effect place this subject in a 
commanding light. Few works on baptism contain so much information. The 
essence of the controversy is fairly exhibited, and we perceive at one glance 
the marshalled forces which appear to protect the infant's font." 

To be had of Rei;. J. Mason, City Road, London, and all the 
Wesle\^an Ministers; and of Bemrose Co., and Pike, Derby, and 
other Booksellers. 



LBAg'05 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

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